Environment ministry names 41 winners in biodiversity art contest

The environment ministry said Monday that its National Institute of Biological Resources has selected 41 winning works in a biodiversity fine-art and artificial intelligence image contest and will present them at an awards ceremony in Incheon on Nov. 3.

The contest, now in its 21st edition, drew 987 entries between May 11 and Aug. 28, judged by a panel of six experts. The winners comprise 11 works in the adult category, 24 from middle and high school students and six from elementary school students.

This year the institute added an AI image division and extended the eligible subjects to species listed under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, asking entrants to address the coexistence of humans and other living things rather than observation and record alone.

In the fine-art division, the top prize in the adult category went to Cha Young-a's "The Aesthetics of Slowness That Breathes With the Earth, the Sloth." Kim Eun-hye won the high school prize with "Warmth on the Bitter Ice," Jeon Je-i the middle school prize with "Mudskipper" and Lee Jae-yun the elementary prize with "Long Time No See, Small Precious Friends of Jirisan."

In the AI image division, Kim Ga-ram took the adult prize with "A Moment of Silence in a Certain Forest," An Sun-young the high school prize with "Swimming" and An Hyun-sung the middle school prize with "While the House Was Being Built, the House Disappeared."

The winning works go on display at the institute's Saengsaengchaeum gallery in Seohae-gu, Incheon, from the day of the ceremony, and will later be shown on wall screens on the building's first and second floors.

The fine-art competition began in 2006 and is held each year to raise public interest in and understanding of native species and to convey the value of biodiversity through artistic sensibility.

"I hope this contest serves as an occasion to reflect on the meaning of biodiversity and the value of respecting life, beyond the technical achievement of precisely reproducing the outward appearance of living things," said Yoo Ho, director of the National Institute of Biological Resources. "We will continue to create spaces for communication where artistic creativity and ecological sensibility are in harmony, so that anyone can take part in conserving biodiversity."