In November of last year, after the Friendship and Cooperation city agreement between Sejong City and Sofia - the capital of Bulgaria, exchanges began in earnest with an exhibition of the ‘Cyrillic alphabet’, a unique alphabet of Bulgaria, at the National Library of Sejong City
This exhibition “Hidden Letters” is co-hosted by the Sejong Special Self-Governing City (Mayor Choi Min-ho), the Bulgarian Embassy in Korea, and the Korea Foundation at the National Library Sejong City from January 13 to February 5, 2023.
Hall in Bulgaria on November 9, 2022 (local time) and signed the ‘Friendship and Cooperation city agreement between Sejong City and Sofia City’.
This project, which has served as a cultural ambassador to promote Bulgarian letters and literature to the world, expanded to a total of eight cities, including Sofia (2018), Paris (2019), Berlin (2020), and Budapest (2020). In Asia, the first exhibition was held at the KF Gallery of the Korea Foundation in Seoul from September 28th to December 2nd, and the second exhibition will be held in Sejong City.
The 'Hidden Letter’ Exhibition is the first outdoor public project started in 2018 by the Reading Sofia Foundation. The purpose is to make benches in the form of the Cyrillic alphabet, a unique Bulgarian alphabet, and install them throughout the city so that citizens can naturally come into contact with the Cyrillic alphabet. These are benches in the shape of (Cyrillic) letters that can be placed anywhere and people can sit and read a poem or a story.
The benches in the shape of the 12 Cyrillic alphabets are independent letter forms that do not exist in the Latin or Greek writing system. In this exhibition, you can see 6 benches made with a total of 7 alphabets (Д, Ж, Ю, Й, Б, Ц Ш).
At the exhibition hall, hands-on and immersive media art was provided to touch and see Cyrillic and Hangeul alphabets, and furthermore, we sought a way to learn about world-class culture and history through various books. In addition, you can indirectly see Bulgaria’s library through various exhibition photos. The exhibition will be an opportunity to promote the artistry and excellence of the Cyrillic alphabet and at the same time to seek a crossroads with 'Hangeul' - a unique Korean alphabet.
Mayor Choi Min-ho said, “I visited Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria last month, and prepared this exhibition to provide various attractions to citizens after signing the ‘Friendship and Cooperation City Agreement’. Through continuous exchanges, we will expand opportunities to publicize the excellence of our Korean language to the world.”
“I hope this exhibition will serve as an opportunity to strengthen and expand the exchange and cooperation between Korea and Bulgaria,” - Ambassador of Bulgaria to S. Korea, Petko Draganov said.
He added they already had planned to visit Sejong City sometime next month to view the exhibition and discuss in detail future exchange plans.
About the ‘Hidden Letter’ exhibition, it is free of charge and is open from Tuesday to Friday from 9:00 to 22:00 and Saturday and Sunday from 9:00 to 18:00, and is closed on Mondays.
