GROWING DREAMS AND BLOOMING UTOPIAS

(2 MINUTE READ)

Berlin is now home to an artist garden where for one summer flowers and plants from both North and South Korea grow together symbolically in a blooming utopia that is called ‘Das Dritte Land’ – The Third Country.

Hope has returned to Korea and its people are beginning to dream again. Rapprochement, easing of tensions and peace now seem closer than they have been for decades. In the year of the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, a unique art project opened in Germany, a country that shared the fate of a divided country once.

After a successful crowdfunding campaign Korean artists Han Seok Hyun, Kim Seung Hwoe and curator Keumhwa Kim created their artist garden at Kulturforum, a historic site that reminds the world of the pain of separation. But nature knows no borders. It overcomes separation.

In DAS DRITTE LAND, flowers from the south and north of Korea will bloom for a summer, symbolizing common growth and blossoming across all borders. Inspired by the ink paintings of the Korean artist Jeong Seon, the garden is composed of black rocks, fog, and wildflowers.

Specific flowers and plants that grow on the mountains of Baekdudaegan, which range from north to south across the Korean Peninsula; unique botanical species as Baical meadow-rue (바이칼 꿩의 다리) or Creeping Catchfly (오랑캐장구채).

In total, 3000 flowers and shrubs will grow and bloom in the garden.

The end of the art garden DAS DRITTE LAND will be a new beginning. In November, the two artists will harvest the seeds of the plants and bring them to another European city in the following years.

Until November 2019, the divided Koreas will symbolically grow together in the once divided capital of Germany.

It’s an art project with strong symbolic power bringing the timeliness of borders and the hope of overcoming them back into public consciousness. DAS DRITTE LAND is a big step on a very important road.