While Lotus in India's national flower, it also symbolises creation, birth, liveability and reproduction in Korean culture.
At the Korean Culture Centre an ongoing art exhibition seeks to highlight several such parallels between the Indian and Korean cultures, in an attempt to bring them closer.
Titled "Secret Garden," the painting show by visual artist Ahn Hyejo, depicts the Korean culture through minimalist design.
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Inspired by the Secret Garden in Korea's historical Changduk Palace, which was registered as UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1997, the exhibition shows tangible and intangible Korean traditional inheritance by reinterpreting them by the tool of 'design'.
Constructed during 1405-1412 for the private use of the King and the royal family, the garden consists of a lotus pond, pavilions, and landscaped lawns replete with trees and flowers.
"I thought that place is implying the Korean beauty and culture. In this place, the artificial and natural beauties are harmonized while revealing Koreans' aesthetic emotions," Hyejo says, who has been living in India for five years now.
In an interesting concept, while the exhibition is named "Secret Garden" from where it is inspired, yet the exhibits do not seem, even remotely, associated with the idea of a garden.
For Hyejo, "Secret Garden" is any place that speaks of Korean life and culture.
"I used 'Secret Garden' as my muse. Even though there is no garden in my art works, all my works are displayed in "Secret Garden". It means the Secret Garden can be any place that connects Korean culture to India."
For this exhibition, she says, Korean Culture Center in Delhi is the secret garden. Buddha, for instance, is another element that is common to the aesthetic sense of both the cultures.
