Korea Participates as Guest of Honor at 2020 Moscow International Book Fair

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Byung-hee] To commemorate the 30th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Korea and Russia, Korea will participate as the guest of honor at the 2020 Moscow International Book Fair. The Moscow International Book Fair will be held from September 2 to 6 at VDNH (Exhibition Center) in Moscow and on an online platform.

The Moscow International Book Fair is the largest book fair in Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) region. This year, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the event will primarily be held online. Korea will also operate various guest of honor programs in an online participation format, as physical exchanges are virtually impossible.

The theme of the guest of honor program is "Future-ing." It will cover various discourses including technological topics such as techno-utopia, the Fourth Industrial Revolution led by artificial intelligence (AI), smart cities, the Internet of Things, and augmented reality, as well as ecological issues like global warming, COVID-19, economic inequality, and gender conflicts.

As part of the detailed programs, the Korea Publishers Association (KPA) has prepared lectures and discussions in the humanities and social sciences fields, which will be produced as videos to meet Russian readers. Professor Kim Hyun-taek (Department of Russian Language, Hankuk University of Foreign Studies) and Anastasia Doynikova (literary translator) will review cultural exchanges between the two countries on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of Korea-Russia diplomatic relations and look ahead to the future. Professor Cho Kang-seok (Department of Korean Language and Literature, Yonsei University) and Ilya Belyakov (broadcaster) will explore apocalyptic narratives and catastrophic imaginations in literature and popular culture. Professor Kim Hong-joong (Department of Sociology, Seoul National University) and Professor Cho Moon-young (Department of Cultural Anthropology, Yonsei University) will have a discussion on the post-COVID era and Korea through the film "Parasite."

The Literature Translation Institute of Korea will produce a video introducing three authors: Jeong Yu-jeong, Do Seon-woo, and Choi Eun-young, to be presented in Russia. Kirill Ignatiev from the local Russian publisher AST Lingua will serve as the moderator and discuss the lives and works of the three authors who have published books in Russia. Additionally, the three authors will engage in a discourse on creation in the post-COVID-19 era and the future direction of Korean and Russian literature together with Russian authors Alex Dubas and Valeriya Koshakova.

The Korea Publication Industry Promotion Agency will introduce children's literature and picture books. Under the title "Meeting the Future Beyond the Boundaries of Time and Space," 50 books will be introduced through videos, and interviews with five authors?I Ok-bae, Jeong Jin-ho, Jang Hyun-jung, Lee Geum-i, and Kim Hye-jung?will be showcased. A special exhibition will also feature nine representative works by Baek Hee-na, who won this year's Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award.

The KPA and the Korea Foundation for International Cultural Exchange will produce and present videos introducing various Korean cultural arts (films, cuisine, performances, etc.). Reporter Lee Da-hye (Cine21) will introduce the current status and future prospects of Korean films based on dystopian worldviews, and Korean YouTuber Min Kyung-ha, popular in Russia, will introduce Korea's unique consumer culture, popular dramas, and color therapy. Ilya Belyakov, a "Korean Russian," will explore Korean bookstores and introduce major reading trends in Korea. PD Lee Uk-jung of Noodle Road, Professor Seok Young-jung (Department of Russian Language and Literature, Korea University), and Professor Ko Hyung-jin (Department of Korean Language Education, Korea University) will introduce food and history appearing in Korean and Russian literature and present a cooking talk show where they cook dishes themselves. Director Choi Yong-seok, director Bae Yo-seop, and writer Kwon Byung-jun will present three performance videos featuring excerpts from works by authors Kim Ae-ran, Han Kang, and Kim Cho-yeop. Typographer Yoo Ji-won and font designer Ruderman Ilya will give a lecture comparing the unique scripts of Korea and Russia?Hangul and Cyrillic. Additionally, content introducing films, music, and representative artists from both countries will be presented.

The Korean Cultural Center in Russia will stream two films related to "Future-ing" online. Director Yeon Sang-ho’s zombie film "Train to Busan," based on a dystopian worldview, and director Lee Chang-dong’s "Burning," which elegantly expresses generational and class gaps, will be available in Russia during the book fair period.

The guest of honor program can be viewed by anyone during the book fair period on the Moscow International Book Fair website (mibf.info/main_eng) and the Seoul International Book Fair guest of honor website (goh.sibf.or.kr).

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.