The biggest events of the Korean art world this fall were the 2013 Gwangju Design Biennale (GDB), which ran from September 6th to November 3rd, and the Korean International Art Fair (KIAF) 2013, from October 3rd to 7th. The fifth GDB sought to communicate with nature, the local community and the general public based on the theme “GUSIGI, MUSIGI (Anything, Something).” The 12th KIAF showcased the reality of the Korean art market. Ahn Mi-hee, the Policy Planning Department Head of Gwangju Beinnale Foundation examines the diverse aspects of 2013 Gwangju Design Biennale and its vision.

Thematic Exhibition: “Old & New”, 2013 GDB

The Gwangju Design Biennale(GDB), which was launched in 2005, has reached its fifth edition. The Gwangju Biennale Foundation has held the Gwangju Biennale in even-numbered years and the Design Biennale in odd-numbered years. Through the GDB, the foundation has proposed new directions for design from diverse perspectives. But, as the distinctions between pure art and design are blurred and genres have grown more amalgamated and diversified in recent years, questions have constantly been raised that the previous forms of the Design Biennale were insufficient and inadequate to be distinguished from the Biennale. Hence, from the preparation stage of this year’s exhibition, the GDB 2013 faced a strong challenge of reexamining its positioning. Under the slogan of “the design hub of Asia”, Gwangju declared this year, 2013, as the Year of the Design Industry and chose the Design Biennale as its focal project to nurture the local design industry. Lee Young-hye, the Artistic Director of the 2013 GDB, contemplated these issues when she took charge of the exhibition. She planned this year’s Biennale with a relatively clear mission to “create and connect the added value through the industrialization of design.”

Lee chose “GUSIGI, MUSIGI (Something, Anything),” a common expression in the dialect of Korea’s Jeolla-do provinces, as the keywords and the major theme of this year’s GDB. She planned the event from a belief that “something” creative must be created from “anything” that is more universal and general. In the Thematic Exhibition “OLD & NEW,” traditional Korean objects not usually associated with design such as regular and winnowing baskets, thimbles or large scissors carried by street candy vendors were displayed, through which the aesthetics imbued in daily Korean culture were sought and explored. Also, by presenting the evolving designs of everyday objects like bicycles or rice cookers, the exhibit showed the pragmatism and evolving values behind the designs of daily items and reflected the process. Next were chair designs of diverse variations, a section devoted to the London Design Museum collection, items that presented the ways in which sports and design are grafted, and an architectural structure that utilized the Korean specialty product, bamboo. This manner of presentation focused on presenting the history of revolutionary designs through everyday objects to make it more accessible to the general public.

Design that Communicates with Nature

Everything in the world is affected by nature, and what makes everything most beautiful is when it is in perfect harmony with nature. To realize the idea behind the phrase “Nature is the best designer,” the 2013 GDB created a flow that invited people to and then led them out to nature. Visitors walked through vegetable gardens created as a part of Special Exhibitions that led up to the entrance of the exhibition halls, and when they exited after watching the exhibit, they stepped out to paths that led to the park and woods. This was able to be realized by changing the entrance and exit for the first time since the 1995 launch of the Gwangju Biennale.

Spatial compositions and exhibition structures using fabric and recycled cardboards instead of regular construction materials were also worth paying attention to. When a large-scale exhibition or event is held, fake walls or temporary structures are built to divide large spaces by sections. These walls and structures are usually destroyed once the event is over. The 2013 GDB tried to minimize the waste produced after such destruction. “Fabric zoning” was attempted for the first time by using fabric partitions instead of building fake walls out of plywood. The partitions also symbolized the open space allowing more flexible flows of human traffic and communication and amalgamation of ideas, without the fixed walls to divide or block them. The exhibition stands were made of recycled cardboard to represent the drive to produce eco-friendly designs, one of the important design aesthetics of the 2013 GDB.

Exhibition hall exit and fabric partitions attempted for the first time this year at the_2013 GDB

Design that Permeates the Community and Life

Among the five exhibition halls, one gallery was dedicated to the city of Gwangju and named “Gwangju Hall.” At this hall, the identity of Gwangju stood out in, while its locality characterized as being harmoniously intermingled with the global aspects of the Biennale was presented. For instance, a citywide survey prior to the exhibition asked a thousand people what was the most precious thing in Gwangju. Then by selecting twenty words that appeared most frequently, sewing kits containing fabrics, needles, thread, embroidery frames and design samples were distributed to the thousand people to create their own craftworks using the 20 words as motifs. After the completed works were collected, they were made into a giant lamp displayed at the exhibition hall. In addition, the 2013 GDB attempted to commercialize the results of design projects to be actually used in Gwangju, which include designs for taxi driver uniform; designed garbage bags that can be used in five districts of Gwangju; and rice packaging designs for the renowned local rice from Gwangju and the Jeolla-do provinces.

As for the rice packaging design, single-serving packaging was attempted to reflect the increase of nuclear families and single-member households, as well as demonstrating locality in the packaging. These efforts were part of the artistic director’s intention to expand and bring designs to essential aspects of everyday life that are often taken for granted and overlooked, such as rice and farming. In the case of taxi driver uniforms, the best design selection was to be through the process of popular vote and municipal discussions on having taxi drivers wear them. Designs might have seemed trivial but could be realized. As the theme of the 2013 GDB presents, attempts are made to turn “any” trivial “thing” into “something” special. These attempts will make Gwangju residents take pride in their professions, cultivate a mindset for public service and develop into an extended form of public design that could reinvent the image of Gwangju.

The exhibition of “The Most Precious Things of Gwangju,” 2013 GDB

Best design for standard garbage bags of five Gwangju districts, 2013 GDB

Design for the Public

The first piece in this year’s exhibition was “City Farmer’s Garden” presented at the plaza outside the exhibition halls. Wooden pallets used to load and carry heavy objects and old discarded tents were utilized to create vegetable gardens that could exist within urban settings. They were designed to make people experience the growth of flowers, plants and vegetables, and also to be harvested in October while the Biennale was running. This cultural statement read into and reflected contemporary life and cultural trends of the “healing” and slow life. In the corner of the plaza, the “Farmer’s Bread” section exhibited breads baked by visitors and participants under the motif “Bread design began from the tradition of communal baking, where villagers had to bake bread together in a communal oven and, hence the need to shape their bread differently to distinguish one from another.” In the exhibition hall, a section dedicated to children, “Kongdakong Nursery,” was designed to suggest a new direction for Korean nurseries. The country has more than 8,000 nurseries nationwide, some of which lack adequate spatial composition or settings for children. In this exhibit, the best nursery model was proposed by modulating the elements and items necessary for a nursery, founded on safety standards and emotional stability of the children. During the exhibit, this section was designed to be open to children to allow them to experience and play.
“Unified Korean Flag” is another leading example of public design, which was based on a virtual scenario of South and North Korea entering the Universiade Gwangju 2015 together as a unified team and nation. More than 90 designers presented their versions of a unified Korean flag. The existing flag with the image of the Korean Peninsula printed in blue on a white background, was considered too simplistic and unoriginal. The new flags, however, tried to include Korea’s cultural and national identity and the country’s image to the outside world in diverse fashion, which in turn provided spectators a chance to think about a reunified Korea through sports.

Kongdakong Nursery, 2013 GDB (Left)
The exhibition of reunified Korea flag designs, 2013 GDB (Right)

The keywords for the 2013 GDB, “GUSIGI, MUSIGI”, which are often used in conversations in various contexts, can be ambiguous. Despite their ambiguity, if one understands the cultural conventions and contexts and shares an emotional bond by forming common ground, he or she can convey necessary messages affectionately, while not saying it in so many words. This year’s GDB aimed at this sense of unspoken connection (yisim jeonsim: heart–to-heart communication) and understanding that extends to mutual communication and link. The focus of design in the contemporary world has shifted towards the user-oriented. The demand is for today’s designers to make something creative from the ordinary and universal things to meet the tastes and characteristics of users. The unspoken connection between users and design is what 2013 Gwangju Design Biennale focused on showing. In the lieu of complicated grand discourses at the 2013 Gwangju Design Biennale, the “GUSIGI, MUSIGI” design presented a new and creative future from the general and universal things.

Photographs provided by Ahn Mi-hee

Ahn Mi-hee / Gwangju Biennale Foundation, Policy Planning Department Head

Ahn Mi-hee received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in studio art from Kyungpook National University in Daegu. After graduation, she went to New York to study contemporary art history at the Pratt Institute and museum studies at the New York University. Working as an independent curator in New York, she organized numerous exhibitions. She then worked as an exhibition adviser for the Queens Museum of Art in 2005 and a director of the Guest of Honor Project at ARCO in Spain in 2007. Since 2005, she has also led the exhibition team at the Gwangju Biennale Foundation and in the overseeing of exhibitions in the Gwangju Biennale with artistic directors Kim Hong-hee (2006), Okwui Enwezor (2008) and Massimiliano Gioni (2010). Ahn now heads the policy planning team at the Gwangju Biennale Foundation.