Two Korean artists Moon Kyung-won and Jeon Joon-ho and Japanese artist Motoyuki Shitamichi have won the Noon Award, an art award given by the Gwangju Biennale Foundation.

The foundation selects an established artist and an emerging artist whose works share an experimental and creative nature of the biennale event.

The Korean team’s collaborative video project “El Fin del Mundo (The End of the World)” has been acknowledged for portraying the survival of two artists in a post-apocalyptic environment.  

Starring famous Korean actor Lee Jung-jae and actress Lim Soo-jung, the 13-minute film “El Fin del Mundo” has been praised for portraying the unknown and confused future world through the eyes of artists.

“The two artists depicted the mysterious happenings and built the confused and attractive future world through their work,” said Massimiliano Gioni, one of the judges of the award and director of the 2010 Gwangju Biennale and 2012 Venice Biennale.

Shitamichi won the award in the emerging artist category for his “Bridge” series, a collection of 286 bridge photographs the artist took while traveling his country after the devastating earthquake and tsunami last year.

The organizers of the award picked Mexican artist Abraham Cruzvillegas for an honorary award for his residency work “Atelier Autoconstruccion: The Inefficient Tinkerer’s Workshop: Free Advice behind Cinema,” currently on display at the old deserted house behind the Gwangju Cinema.

The award gives $10,000 to artists in the established artist category and $5,000 to the emerging artist.

By Lee Woo-young  (wylee@heraldcorp.com)