Last year, in 2023, artist Kim Ji-hye, who won the Nowon Moonlightwalk’s Nowon Artist Contest, presented a community art piece titled [Expanding Drawing], in collaboration with young participants from the [Loose Company]. These young people, who had experienced solitude and isolation—lonely yet meaningful times of introspection—expressed their desire to break free from the small confines they had been in and to enjoy both personal and public life in a larger, freer space. Through large brushstrokes that reached outward, they found courage with the artist to express their individual hopes and dreams.

For this year’s 2024 Moonlightwalk, Kim has embarked on a new community project with a different group, transforming it into the artwork titled [Starry Night of Nowon]. Together with the residents of the Nowon Energy Zero Housing Complex in Hagye-dong, they expressed the night sky over Nowon. To capture the moon and stars, which have always served as humanity’s guides in the dark sky, they gradually filled the deep blue background with color. They scratched parts of the acrylic canvas, filling them with yellow paint to depict the constellations of stars quietly shining.

Although the city’s lights often hide the stars, on a sufficiently dark night sky, the stars reveal their beauty. This piece contains the hope for a future where our night sky can become a stage for starlight, wishing for a clear, clean, and dark enough natural environment to support such a night sky.