S.Korean grain silo transforms into world’s largest mural

INCHEON, South Korea — A dreary grain silo that was transformed into an enormous colorful artwork in South Korea has been named by Guinness World Records as the largest outdoor mural in the world.

The painting, which depicts a young boy's journey into adulthood, covers the outside of giant storage containers in the port city of Incheon, west of Seoul, taking up 23,688 square meters.

A mural listed by the Guinness World Records as the largest in the world is displayed on a grain silo in Incheon port, west of Seoul on December 19, 2018. Ed Jones/ AFP

According to the Korea Times, the Incheon city government and Incheon Port Authority commissioned 22 painting artists and spent us$487,000 on the project, which started in January this year. Ed Jones/ AFP

The mural was commissioned by the city's government and port authority as part of efforts to improve the negative view of aged industrial facilities, an idea which originated from the community art projects of the 1920s that swept the United States and Mexico, according to the South's Yonhap news agency.

Twenty-two artists used more than 850,000 liters of paint to tell the story which reflects the seasons and resembles 16 individual book covers, at a cost of 550 million won (US$487,000).

It topples the previous record holder—the Pueblo Levee Project in Pueblo, in the US state of Colorado, at 16,554 square meters—by a significant margin.

Government and port officials also hope the mural will give a boost to tourism on Wolmi Island, one of the top tourist spots near Incheon. — Agence France-Presse