ESTsoft (CEO Chung Sang-won), a company specializing in AI services, announced on the 2nd that it has signed an agreement with Getty Images Korea (CEO Park Gun-won), the world's largest stock content company, for a Frida Kahlo photo exhibition business using AI virtual human technology.
Frida Kahlo is a world-renowned artist called a national treasure of Mexico, and this is the first time her original photographs have been shown in Korea.
Getty Images Korea holds the licensing rights to the digital materials of the portraits of Frida Kahlo and the paintings she made that appear in the exhibition. The exhibition features work by some 20 photographers along with pieces reinterpreted as media art, organized by Made in View (CEO Choi Sung-jin).
Under the agreement, ESTsoft will present Frida Kahlo's signature photographs and paintings as moving works at the exhibition — giving visitors greater inspiration by showing a Frida Kahlo and a body of work that seem alive, through AI.
Specifically, the company advanced its AI-generated video and motion-retargeting technologies for AI virtual human production, together with super-resolution technology for reconstructing video, so that they work in combination to bring movement to the digital photographs and artwork of Frida Kahlo, IP held by Getty Images Korea. The two companies plan to jointly pursue an exhibition licensing business using this as well.
With this, ESTsoft gives concrete shape to the 'AI image' business it has newly proposed as a new AI venture, after 'AI virtual humans' and 'AI eyewear virtual fitting commerce'. It comes less than two months after the company signed a memorandum of understanding with Getty Images Korea in November.
ESTsoft has begun producing the works to be shown at the exhibition, which will be introduced from February at Hyundai Department Store's Trade Center branch. The Frida Kahlo photo exhibition runs until March 26.
Starting with this agreement, the two companies will also bring movement and voice to photographs and works of famous figures whose IP Getty Images Korea supplies — 'Marilyn Monroe', 'Vincent van Gogh' and 'Albert Einstein' among them — and expand in earnest into exhibitions such as media art and a range of other services, while exploring the possibility of taking the same format to overseas exhibitions.
ESTsoft CEO Chung Sang-won said: "With a business model that maximizes both companies' synergy built so quickly, our expectations are all the higher," adding, "From this year, the new AI businesses ESTsoft has been pursuing, virtual humans above all, will expand beyond B2B into B2C and deliver visible results."
The virtual human market ESTsoft is pursuing as a new AI business has enormous growth potential and is drawing worldwide attention. Global market research firm Emergen Research has forecast that the global virtual human market will grow to USD 527.58 billion (about KRW 700 trillion) by 2030.