By Honorary Reporter Diana Trifonova from Bulgaria

The exhibition "Hidden Letters" is a journey of hidden rhythms and beats flowing through Hangeul and the Bulgarian Cyrillic alphabet. Running through Nov. 18 in Seoul's Jung-gu District, the event allows visitors to physically touch, see and read the two alphabets and experience the magic of written script.

I discovered this exhibition on Bulgarian social media and found that it presents both Hangeul and Cyrillic in modern and innovative ways. I was excited over this rare Bulgarian-formed art initiative that uses Korean letters as a means of introducing part of my country's heritage to Koreans. 

To better understand the exhibition, I also had a phone chat on Oct. 11 with Todora Radeva, founder of the Reading Sofia Foundation (RSF) and curator of the "Hidden Letters" project.

The interactive exhibition "Hidden Letters" is running through Nov. 18 at the Korea Foundation Gallery in Seoul's Jung-gu District. (The Korea Foundation)

In 2018, the RSF first designed benches in the shape of Bulgarian letters and placed them in an urban environment. Each bench was inscribed with a poem by a contemporary Bulgarian writer. This interactive exhibition has since been held in many global cities like Paris, Budapest (Hungary), Berlin, Rabat (Morocco), Brussels and Ghent (Belgium), and now Seoul. The Korea Foundation and the Bulgarian Embassy in Seoul collaborated to create this space for both alphabets.

On the interpretations by Korean visual artists of the two alphabets as shown in the exhibition, Radeva said, "I liked very much the work of the Korean visual artists and designers who played with the shapes and meanings (of the letters) in the exhibition. They presented the letters as in (the game) Tetris, used new media to vividly display the two alphabets, created their own words and played with the meanings."

These benches in Bulgaria are shaped like Cyrillic letters. (Reading Sofia Foundation)

The exhibition offers first-hand experience with the poems of six Bulgarian writers, their books, a published anthology of "Hidden Letters" and photos from the lifestyle of contemporary literature in Sofia. 

On if she and her team at the RSF expected the project to spread abroad including to Seoul, Radeva said, "We dreamed about it. Since the creation of letter benches in 2018, we thought they could travel everywhere to show the Bulgarian alphabet in a natural and original way and introduce our contemporary poetry. Interest in the project hasn't stopped."

And the best part about the exhibition in Seoul? The six letter benches made for the event at the Korea Foundation Gallery will be later installed in other parts of the Korean capital. 

kalhong617@korea.kr

*This article is written by a Korea.net Honorary Reporter. Our group of Honorary Reporters are from all around the world, and they share with Korea.net their love and passion for all things Korean.