▲ This photo, provided by Taekwang Group, shows the Hammering Man in Gwanghwamun, Seoul. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap)

 

 

SEOUL, June 7 (Yonhap) -- The Sehwa Art and Culture Foundation of Taekwang Group announced on the 7th that "Hammering Man," a landmark in Gwanghwamun, Seoul, celebrated its 20th birthday.

Hammering Man was installed on June 4, 2002 next to the Heungkuk Life Insurance Building in Jongno-gu, Seoul, and has established itself as a landmark that symbolizes the Gwanghwamun area in the busy city center.

Created by the American sculptor Jonathan Borofsky, Hammering Man first appeared in an exhibition in New York in 1979 with a height of 3.4m.

Since then, Hammering Man has been installed in Seattle, Dallas, California, Minneapolis, Gainesville, and Los Angeles (LA) in the United States, Frankfurt in Germany, Basel in Switzerland, Lillestrøm in Norway, and Nagoya in Japan.

Among these series, Hammering Man in Gwanghwamun boasts the world's largest Hammering Man body with a height of 22m tall and a weight of 50t (ton).

Hammering Man hammers once every 35 seconds from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. (summer) on weekdays. It does not operate on weekends and public holidays.

The Hammering Man was inspired by the story of a kind giant told by his father, a musician, during his childhood, and Jonathan Brofsky is said to have designed the Hammering Man based on a 1976 photograph of a Tunisian shoemaker hammering a hammer.

The Sehwa Art and Culture Foundation will also be holding a cultural event for the hammering man celebrating his 20th birthday.

If you leave a happy birthday message for Hammering Man on the social media operated by the Sehwa Museum of Art, a small souvenir will be provided.

 

(This article is translated from Korean to English by Haemin Kim.)

 

 

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