Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism / Korean Culture and Information Service

The Korean Cultural Center Brussels, as led by Director KIM Dongeun, participated in the BD Comic Strip Festival held from Sept 8 to 10—a festival taking place at Tour & Taxis, one of Brussels' prominent exhibition halls, and organized annually by the Brussels Tourism Office since 2010. This year's festival featured a diverse array of comic artists from over 10 countries, including Spain, Poland, and a special exhibition celebrating the 77th anniversary of Belgium's leading comic publisher, Lombard.

Four Korean comic artists (Yongkwan Kim, Leebinsoyeon, Yoojin Um, Silki) were invited to the festival. They showcased their works at the Korean Cultural Center booth and engaged with local comic fans through various workshops.

Yoojin Um offered participants a fresh perspective on comics with her "Creating Booklets" workshop, while Yongkwan Kim guided attendees to experience a new outlook on comics through his workshop on "Drawing Comics with Rules and Constraints."

Silki, on the other hand, conducted a workshop where attendees used tablets to create 3-panel webtoon animations of their own faces, and Leebinsoyeon introduced comic fan children to a novel experience with an AR filter creation workshop.

Ambassador Ryu Jeonghyun of the Embassy of the Republic of Korea to the Kingdom of Belgium and the European Union visited the festival to encourage the artists and emphasized, "Korean comics and webtoons have already established themselves as core content in the international comic festival held in Belgium—a nation proud of its contributions to comics like Tintin, The Smurfs, etc. We will actively support the local expansion of our comic and webtoon content."

On Sept 11, a book talk featuring Silki, the comic artist of <Kimchi Baguette>, took place at the Korean Cultural Center Brussels. Silki, a Korean residing in France, presented a work that delves into the prejudices and biases she has experienced as a Korean residing in France.

This year's release, <Kimchi Baguette>, which garnered attention at the Angoulême International Comics Festival, presents a rustic, print-like imagery while thoughtfully and warmly portraying the challenges of cultural differences.

The Korean Cultural Center Brussels participates in the BD Comic Strip Festival every year to showcase outstanding Korean comics—they are currently hosting a special exhibition, <Korea-EU Comic Exchange Special Exhibition>, in the cultural center's exhibition hall, featuring the works of 8 artists from 4 countries.