Why Lee Sang-il, Mayor of Yongin, Mentioned Picasso's 'Bull's Head'

A 30 Billion Won Art Piece Infusing 'Sangsangryeok' into Abandoned Bicycles
'Sangsangryeok' Emphasized in Special Lecture for Semiconductor Company Employees

On the afternoon of the 16th, at the semiconductor equipment cluster of Surplus Global located in Tongsam General Complex, Namsa-eup, Cheoin-gu, Yongin-si, Gyeonggi-do, Lee Sang-il, mayor of Yongin Special City, showed a photo during a special lecture in front of about 70 executives and employees and asked, "What do you see here?" It was Picasso's work, "Bull's Head."

Lee Sang-il, Mayor of Yongin Special City, is giving a special lecture titled "The World of Pictures with Stories" to about 70 executives and employees at Surplus Global located in Namsa-eup, Cheoin-gu, Yongin on the 16th.
[Photo by Yongin City]

The mayor continued, "'Bull's Head' is a work Picasso created in 1943 using only the handlebar and saddle of a discarded bicycle. Fifty years later, this piece was sold for as much as 5 billion won," emphasizing, "Just as Picasso believed that even trash can become material for art, imagination is equally important."

In the special lecture titled "The World of Paintings with Stories," the mayor introduced the 1996 film "Stendhal Syndrome" directed by Dario Argento. The term "Stendhal Syndrome" originates from the experience of the French realist writer Stendhal and refers to a state of being so moved by art that one feels dizzy. The mayor also shared an anecdote about Vincent van Gogh experiencing "Stendhal Syndrome" when he saw Rembrandt's painting "The Jewish Bride" at the opening of the Amsterdam National Museum.

He spoke for nearly two hours about various artworks and related stories from diverse fields such as film, architecture, and literature, including the European Parliament building influenced by Pieter Bruegel's 16th-century Tower of Babel, Leonardo da Vinci's "Mona Lisa," which uniquely has its own room in the Louvre Museum, da Vinci's "Salvator Mundi," sold for $450 million, the most expensive painting in the world, and Klimt's mural "Beethoven Frieze," inspired by Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 "Choral."

The mayor regularly volunteers his talents through special lectures whenever he has time. Registered as a "Human Book" in the field of art humanities at the Yongin Suji Library, he is also known as the "Lecturing Mayor."

Meanwhile, before the lecture, the mayor explained the selection process of the candidate sites for the National Advanced System Semiconductor Industrial Complex in Idong and Namsa, as well as the background of Yongin Special City's designation as a specialized complex for the national advanced semiconductor strategic industry.

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