Why Did the Artist Behind the 'Rubber Duck' That Made a Splash at Seokchon Lake Visit Korea?

[Financial News] World-renowned public artist Florentijn Hofman visited Dolkori Forest in Jeju to see Tangerine Cat, his first work featuring a cat, in person. The work brings together tangerines, a fruit symbolic of Jeju, and Dolkori Forest’s feline-themed world, and is seen as offering visitors to Jeju a new attraction.
According to industry sources on the 28th, Hofman visited Dolkori Forest, an experiential lifestyle content park in Seogwipo City, Jeju, on the 27th. It was his first visit to the installation site since Tangerine Cat was unveiled on July 27.
Tangerine Cat is a large-scale installation artwork measuring 16.3 meters long and 7.3 meters tall. Details such as its surface, which captures the texture of tangerine peel, convey the message, “A new discovery in a familiar landscape.”
In addition to Tangerine Cat, Hofman toured the indoor exhibition hall and outdoor garden. He looked around spaces displaying works by Korean and international artists and discussed the background to the works’ creation and the direction for staging the space with Dolkori Forest staff.
Hofman is a Dutch public artist known for reinterpreting everyday objects and animals as giant sculptures. His best-known work, “Rubber Duck,” was first unveiled in Saint-Nazaire, France, in 2007 and then toured major cities around the world, including Amsterdam, Osaka, Sydney and Hong Kong. In South Korea, it was installed at Seokchon Lake in Seoul in 2014 and 2022, and about 5 million people visited the 2014 exhibition.
Meanwhile, Dolkori Forest opened this past April 30 in Andeok-myeon, Seogwipo City, Jeju. It was developed on approximately 18,000 pyeong of the former Soinguk Theme Park site and comprises an indoor exhibition hall, Dolkori Village, and an outdoor garden, Dolkori Garden, among other features.
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