The final episode of the special edition advertisement of collaboration series that Hyundai E&C has been running at Exit 3 of Anguk Station in Jongno-gu, Seoul since January has finally been released. The blue sea that emerged at the subway station in the downtown area on a summer day when the discomfort index was rising was quite refreshing and pleasing to the eye. What is the message behind this sudden appearance of the ocean in the middle of Anguk Station? Let us find out. 

Writing = Lee Young-joo / Illustration =Kwang Kwang , Photograph=Lee Seul-ki, Getty Image Bank Korea, the Seoul Donhwamun Traditional Theater

[ Tourists passing through Anguk Station are curiously watching Hyundai E&C's art collaboration campaign "Building Together" hanging at Exit 3 of Anguk Station. Hyundai E&C's special edition advertisement reinterprets the image of Anguk and Hyundai E&C's spirit of "ongojisin(cherishing or restudying old and acquiring new knowledge) in Korean style, which has generated a lot of buzz ]

Invitation to “Sugungga” Where Tiger Used to Come Down

300m from Anguk Station, near the head office of Hyundai E&C, are located unique museums and performance venues built in hanok. These include the Seoul Museum of Korean Folk Music and the Seoul Donhwamun Traditional Theater. Not even counting K-pop, which is gaining global attention, Koreans have long been not just fond of singing, but also good singers. We used to sing in events and feasts, while working or marching with funeral biers, while expressing joy, sadness, and humor. So it seems only fitting that a space dedicated to the study, preservation, and modern interpretation of gugak (Korean traditional, classical music), one of our unique intangible heritages, is located in Anguk Station.

[ The Seoul Donhwamun Traditional Theater is a concert hall specialized for showcasing gugak performances with natural sounds, built to restore the identity of the historical and cultural areas of Changdeokgung and contribute to the popularization of Korean traditional culture, where the concert hall development was done by Seoul Metropolitan City and operation is outsourced to Insight Motion  (Photo: Seoul Donhwamun Traditional Theater) ]

When it comes to modern interpretations of traditional sounds, there's one band that comes to mind. It's the music band, “Leenalchi”, which fuses pansori with pop styles. The alternative pop band, which uses the name of a late Joseon singer as its band name, made a name for itself when its song “Tiger is Coming” was featured in the Korea Tourism Organization's promotional video “Feel the Rhythm of Korea”. The song is a passage from the pansori song “Sugungga”, which describes a situation where turtle, who comes to land to meet a rabbit, encounters a tiger.

The last episode of the Hyundai E&C's art collaboration campaign series, which reinterpreted “ongojisin*” in a modern way also starts from this <Sugungga>.

*ongojisin: cherishing or restudying old and acquiring new knowledge.

“Our Sugung (water palace) is a world of its own.

It is the largest of kinds in all heavens and the earth. 

It is the supreme spirit amidst all things. 

It has built a thousand houses in the boundless ocean, 

with glass columns, amber-based foundations, and the red pavilion rising high in midair.”

In the pansori play <Sugungga>, which presents a social satire of the late Joseon dynasty, the scene where the turtle depicts the sea in order to take the rabbit with it is quite well-known, because the sea is portrayed as a utopia that can be found nowhere. However, what was once dismissed as a far-fetched and exaggerated tale has recently become a surprising reality. Gleaming skyscrapers that look like glass columns are rising out of the bottomless ocean, and giant bridges span the sea on concrete pillars rather than amber-based foundations. On the artificial islands floating in the sea, cities, airports, power plants, etc. are built, which are bigger than pavilions, making people's lives more convenient and prosperous. Above all, marine construction, which involves carefully exploring the subsea ground at great depths and calming rough waves to create a new space on the waters, is what Hyundai E&C is best at.

Hyundai E&C's exclusive offshore projects guided by turtle and rabbit

[ Illustration of Kwang Kwang's Hyundai E&C Art Collaboration Campaign Part 3, "Building Together," showcased at Exit 3 of Anguk Station ]

The titles of Hyundai E&C's art collaboration trilogy with illustrator Kwang are <Building History>, <Building Dreams>, and <Building Together>. However, the hare and tortoise featured in the third episode are known for their ill-fated relationship since Aesop's fables to traditional fairytales. In particular, the rabbit and the turtle in <Sugungga> have a tricky relationship, tricking and deceiving each other. And yet, in the illustrations drawn by Kwang, they seem to get along quite well. In particular, the expression on turtle's face while wearing a Hyundai E&C hard hat gives off a sense of pride as it leads the rabbit to the sea, and the rabbit's eyes also sparkle with excitement as it is guided by the turtle.

As a global total engineering company, Hyundai E&C boasts a diversified portfolio, but one area in which it has always excelled at is maritime and port infrastructure. The company has successfully promoted large-scale ports and reclamation projects at home and abroad, including the Saudi Jubail Industrial Port, which is said to be the largest civil engineering project of the 20th century, and in Singapore, 7% of the country's territory was expanded thanks to Hyundai E&C's technology.

[ Sheikh Jaber Causeway in Kuwait, the largest sea bridge constructed by Hyundai E&C (left), and Boryeong Undersea Tunnel, the longest underwater tunnel in Korea (right) ]

Hyundai E&C's flagship projects are also featured in the center of the ad, which was released with the caption, "This is Anguk-Hyundai E&C Station, which is opening a sustainable tomorrow. The “Kuwait Sheikh Jaber Causeway”, a giant maritime bridge with a total length of 36.1 kilometers, equivalent to the distance from Gwanghwamun to Suwon, and the “Boryeong Undersea Tunnel”, the longest underwater tunnel in Korea. Hyundai E&C's ability to create a road in the sea with its unrivaled construction capabilities and technology is no less impressive than the miracle of Moses in the Bible.

[ Hyundai E&C's third art collaboration series vividly recreates the company's “tanker method”, which used a 226,000-ton oil tanker to block seawater and successfully completed a land reclamation project ]

What about a giant vessel next to the Sheikh Jaber Causeway? In 1982, Hyundai E&C carried out a large-scale reclamation project to reclaim about 16,000 hectares of land in the Seosan area by filling in the sea, based on the belief of the late President Chung Ju-yung that land is the most precious legacy to pass on to future generations. However, due to the tremendous tides and high current speeds off the coast of Seosan, the project faced challenges, and it was at this time that the “oil tanker method” was introduced, in which large discarded oil tankers were used to block the flow of water. With this innovative method, Hyundai E&C was able to save 28 billion won in construction costs, shorten the construction period by 36 months, and secure a land area 33 times larger than that of Yeouido, an unprecedented construction method that attracted a lot of consulting demand from overseas.

[ A view of the site of the Tuas Finger 3 project being constructed by Hyundai E&C in Singapore. Utilizing this caisson construction method, Hyundai E&C has successfully led Singapore's  reclamation project and expanded the country's land area by 7% ]

The rough waves on the right side of the picture, are blocked by a huge vessel featuring Hyundai E&C's CI and can no longer exert power, possibly because of the powerful “oil tanker method." Hyundai E&C creates greenery by filling in the calm sea and builds a harbor by sculpting the coast with a special technology called the Caisson, which creates a large concrete structure equivalent to one apartment building. It has conquered the sea by opening a huge waterway to circulate not only people and cars but also logistics.

[ The reclaimed land in the art collaboration ad contains a large port, solar panels, smart farms, and other facilities that will enrich human life ]

Behind the port of large containers, you can see fertile farmland, solar panels, and smart farms that can grow crops in any climate or environment. It is as if a vision of the future has been merged into Seosan Farm, where a large-scale solar power plant covering 300,000 pyeong coexists with a farm that accounts for 1 percent of domestic rice production. In particular, the fact that the construction company that has been building the space is responding to the climate crisis with renewable energy and is also thinking about future food issues by cultivating crops in an eco-friendly way with smart technology, is quite resonant with the title “Building Together”.

[ The artificial island in the art collaboration ad has a hexagonal honeycomb structure to increase space utilization, which is evocative of the “HMG Greenfield Smart City” announced by Hyundai Motor Group last year. (Source: Hyundai Motor Group) In addition, floating maritime airports are gaining interest as a future technology because they are eco-friendly and easily scalable ]

In the upper left, a low-carbon green skyscraper glimmers in the rising sun. The adjacent artificial island is designed in a hexagonal honeycomb structure to preserve the natural environment of the sea while allowing humans and nature to coexist. Reminiscent of the “HMG Greenfield Smart City” announced by Hyundai Motor Group last year, the artificial island is surrounded by yachts leisurely sailing on the sea and airplanes preparing to take off.

The transportation landscape of the future, with predicted sea level changes due to climate change, will look very different from today. New mobility using sea and sky roads will be powered by solar panels or new renewable energies such as hydrogen, like yachts in the picture. Airports, which require huge sites, will be built on the ocean, which covers 70% of the earth. Whether landfill, reclamation, or floating type, Hyundai's expertise in using mega caissons will be integrated to create a maritime airport with a long runway stretching out over the sea.

Nowadays, concerns about cities sinking under the sea are in the news every day, but with Hyundai E&C's future maritime city, sea level rise will no longer be a concern. The “Water World” envisioned by Hyundai E&C which will change the topography of the infinite ocean, seems to be a happy world where rabbits on land and turtles in the sea can all dream together.

Embracing the ocean, marching into the future

[ The sea in Hyundai E&C's third art collaboration series is inspired by the Joseon Dynasty folk painting "Yakrido." (Source: The National Folk Museum of Korea) ]

The story of the turtle and rabbit's adventures at sea unfolds endlessly. On the other side of the ocean, offshore wind turbines spin smoothly, and the clean waters are teeming with clams, crabs, and other creatures living in harmony. In the blue, livable sea, fish also jump and perform dances.

Kwang Kwang's depiction of the sea was inspired by the Joseon Dynasty folk tale "Yakrido," which depicts a carp rippling and jumping into the air as the sun rises, and is said to be an auspicious picture symbolizing prosperity and success. It originated from the legend that a large fish became a dragon by jumping into a yongmun or dragon gate in China, where the waters were strong and rough, and it is for the same reason that the gateways that we must go through to achieve our goals are called "deungyongmun". Therefore, the illustrations in<Building Together> edition are a declaration of Hyundai E&C's special commitment to building not only humanity but also the well-being and happiness of our planet, Earth.

[ Hyundai E&C 2023 art collaboration trilogy. From “Building History” to “Building Dreams” to “Building Together”, which were unveiled at Anguk Station since January 30, Kwang Kwang's unique illustrations drew responses that they have well expressed the images of Anguk and Hyundai E&C's spirit of "ongojisin" ]

The 2023 Hyundai E&C Art Collaboration trilogy, which first began with the inspirations from the Injeongjeon hall at Changdeokgung Palace, went through Seosan where Hyundai E&C's corporate spirit lives on, to conclude at the far-off distant ocean. In a time when the most Korean is recognized as the most global, we hope that this campaign, which inherits Hyundai E&C’s origins and founding spirit and connects them to the present and the future, will be long remembered as something is fun and proud for all employees of Hyundai E&C and everyone who visits Anguk Station.

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