Spaceの June 2021 の目次

Sehwa Museum of Art, which has addressed the theme of the city since opening in 2017, now presents the show ‘Solid City #City #People #Space’. The third exhibition in the series, following ‘Wonder City’ (2018), which looked at the city through the eyes of a flâneur, and ‘Phantom City’ (2019), which captured extensions to the city through light and color, now closes the distance with the urban realm to scrutinise the microscopic world that Seoulites have built. Ten teams of creators from various fields, including artists, architects, film directors, and choreographers, participate in this exhibition to present various interpretations. Park Hyemin & Kim Soohwan have created booths that introduce travel products by setting up the Korean locations with many foreign immigrants as virtual overseas cities. Ma Minji interprets the desires…

To what extent can the word ‘life’ be used in common parlance? When thinking of ‘life’, we may immediately think of the image of a newborn baby, or the dynamic image of a galloping horse. But about the static image of a plant? What about the newly grown shoot on a potato? To some, such images may not be of much commercial value, but Jung Jungyeob discovers in them the force of life. She carefully studies the potato in shoot and captures this energy either on the canvas or makes it float around the urban space as an independent object. This forms my impression of the exhibition ‘Jung Jungyeob: Silent Uproar’ which is presently on display at the Seoul Botanic Park. As a solo show, 45 of her artworks that…

In various parts of Seoul, the ruins of Hanyangdoseong can be found. At an average height of about 5 ‒ 8m and a total length of about 18.6km, Hanyangdoseong is the world’s longest-surviving city wall, with a recorded existence of 514 years (1396 ‒ 1910). When walking along Hanyangdoseong, one discovers rocks with words or signs engraved on them. These are known as ‘inscribed stones’, and the history of city wall construction in Joseon is embodied in them. The exhibition, ‘Construction Records of Hanyangdoseong Engraved on Stone’, which allows one to contemplate these inscribed stones and their meaning is now on show at the Seoul City Wall Museum located in Jongno-gu, Seoul. The exhibition is largely divided into two sections. The first section ‘Words Inscribed in Stone’ introduces the unique…

The restructuring work of Gwanghwamun Square unearthed the remains of Yookcho Geori of the Joseon Dynasty, as part of excavation research in buried cultural heritage conducted by the Seoul Metropolitan Government (SMG). Yookcho Geori, located in Sejong-daero, was once the central street in Hanyang, the old name of Seoul, and was home to the central government offices of Joseon. Locating the site of Uijeongbu through a period of excavation research that has lasted seven years, since 2013, SMG announced that this research had also lead to the discovery of remains that they estimate to be the location of major government offices and foundation of buildings for the first time. They provide an important basis for grasping the surrounding area and the overall structure of Yookcho, and also confirm that the…

In celebration of the cultural arts event ‘2021 Museum Week’, an online symposium under the theme ‘The Future of Museums: Recover and Reimagine’ was held on May 13. Ahn Hyunjung (curator, Sungkyunkwan University Museum) said that the future task of museums and art museums would be to devise a way of ‘allowing people to experience actual content from the comfort of their home’. Presented as a breakthrough, Ahn discussed the rise of NFT and metaverse. Instead of creating ‘something’ out of ‘nothing’, Ahn also raised the possibility of introducing a new worldview or regulations to the ‘Google Arts & Culture’, which was launched in 2011 to seek a new way of communicating with a international audience. Chang Dongsun (director, Museum SODA) presented the Museum SODA as a vital exemplar for…

Arr is a spatial design studio led by Namkoong Kyo and Oh Hyunjin. They have been dealing with spaces on large and small scales, across projects designing a single piece of furniture to building renovation projects. They have broadened the spectrum of their work through collaborations with various subjects. We heard more about the background to the vast and diverse range of work that arr's hands have reached and the particular characteristics they pursue in their spaces. Park Semi (Park): Although arr was founded in 2018, each of you had previously worked on spatial design. I am curious about your academic or work history. Oh Hyunjin (Oh): I majored in architecture, and after graduating, I began my career at junya.ishigami + associates. I studied architecture separately from interior design at…

Every day we experience a flood of news about the spread of Coronavirus Disease-19 and the production of vaccines to stop the spread of the virus. How different will our lives be when the pandemic situation ends at this global scale? The exhibition ‘Unparasite’, which stems from these concerns, opens on May 18 at the Platform-L Contemporary Art Center (hereinafter Platform-L). Platform-L, which sets a contemporary theme every year as the agenda for all activities in the museum, planned this exhibition under this year’s subject of ‘symbiosis’. In an environment in which it is difficult to gather in one place and to communicate, they decided to reflect upon the nature of lived experience now and how we might relate to one another in the future. In this exhibition, a team…

At Barakat Contemporary, located in Samcheong-dong in Jongno-gu, Seoul, the first solo show in Korea by the British sculptor Michael Dean is on show from Mar. 31 to May 30 under the title, ‘Garden of Delete’. Dean introduces himself as a proficient ‘writer’. This is because the starting point for his work is always language. Using language as a medium through which to express his thoughts and feelings for the world around us, Dean pursues various genres and modes of writing. For him, writing is not limited to the printing of words on paper; rather, it can take on different material and tangible forms such as recitation, performance, theater, sound, body prints, and sculpture. At this exhibition, Dean uses the exhibition space as an empty page on which to write…

After the 39 days that stretched between Apr. 1 and May 9, the 13th Gwangju Biennale came to an end. The theme of this biennale was ‘Minds Rising, Spirits Tuning’. The curators Defne Ayas and Natasha Ginwala, in charge of the biennale, explained that they ‘wanted to draw attention to healing technologies, indigenous life-worlds, matriarchal systems, animism, and anti-systemic kinship’. With this theme as context, about 450 artworks from 69 teams (that were mainly composed of artists of non-western origin) that address themes such as feminism, shamanism, cosmology, and state violence were presented. The biennale was held across five locations at Gwangju. The Gwangju Biennale Exhibition Hall exhibited about 50 works from artists such as Min Joung-Ki, Lee Gap Chul, and Moon Kyoung-Won and they narrated the lifeworlds of local…

Seoul Metropolitan Government (SMG) announced the opening of a teaser website for Seoul Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism 2021 (SBAU 2021, seoulbiennale.org) on Apr. 16. The new website has been created to elucidate the event’s intentions and to promote the programmes of events before the biennale. The design of the teaser website is by Kwon Joonho (co-principal, Everyday Practice). The graphic design studio, Everyday Practice has gained a reputation for the effective communication of social events through poster designs for Gangjeong village and installation work for commemorating the Sewol Ferry. Kwon has released various online services, including the archive for the Korean Music Awards, Ilmin Museum of Art, through a responsive web interface. In designing the SBAU 2021 website, he chose a ‘crossroads’ as the principal visual identity, which is…

EXHIBITION SPACE 6 Yoon Wonhwa, a visual culture researcher, wrote a series of articles. Focus on the place where the exhibition is placed and talk about the exhibition. Exhibitions move places in the form of images and data and change their appearance in various ways. These articles look back on the places where exhibitions appear. The galleries in Euljiro exist not as buildings but as rooms. The narrow entrance through a crowded alleyway lined with cars and people carrying luggage leads to a string of rooms connected by illogical corridors and stairs. One or two of these rooms are used as exhibition rooms and artists’ studios. They do not always open, nor are they always used for this purpose. If one has free time and wants to see an exhibition…

DnA is an architectural studio based in Beijing, China, that has engaged in a wide range of projects. ‘Architecture is not only about the physical environment but also about the social environment’, they assert, adding that they are ‘interested in how architecture affects and inspires our modern lives’. Here, SPACE focuses on their small factory projects developed for rural villages. This is not ‘urban acupuncture’ but ‘rural acupuncture’. Xu Tiantian elucidates the kinds of spaces their sugar factory, oil factory, tofu factory, and rice wine factory all provide for each village and how they have changed the community for the better. Park Semi (Park): Aside from the numerous projects by DnA, I’d like to focus on its series of small-scale factory projects. The Brown Sugar Factory (2016), Oil Workshop (2018),…

An exhibition of the furniture designed by architect Jean Prouvé has been on show at Gallery L.993 since May 11. ‘Jean Prouvé: The House’ was curated to celebrate the Henry Beguelin flagship store opening in Apgujeong, Seoul. Prouvé was a member of The French Union of Modern Artists and is known as an architect who pursues a simple structural design. The exhibition hall features bookshelves, stools and tables, including the residential module 6 × 6 Demountable House (1944), which he designed in the 1940s and 1960s. The 6 × 6 Demountable House was a residential model designed to quickly rebuild those urban homes devastated in the Second World War, with wooden walls and floors between steel structures for ease of assembly and dismantlement. The Rare Demountable Semi-metal Chair (1952) is…

A building in Seochon, Seoul, which had not been visited for a long time, is now bustling with visitors. This is because of an exhibition of the work of Byoungsoo Cho (co-principal, BCHO Partners, who remodelled the site. In this show, entitled ‘Mahk_Project ZERO’, one can experience his architectural philosophy. It was on show at Tongui-dong 88 from Apr. 16 to May 9. Tongui-dong 88 is Seochon’s third complex cultural facility designed by Byoungsoo Cho, following the Onground Gallery and Theground across the street. The space consists of three buildings that share a yard. So far, Cho has been talking about his primary architectural language, ‘Mahk’, by holding exhibitions such as ‘figure & ground’ (2020) and ‘Architecture Towards the Earth’ (2018) in his own designed buildings. Mahk exemplifies an unrefined…

The Seoul Housing & Communities Corporation, Design Competition for Wirye A1-14BL Newlywed Hope Town On Apr. 12, the Seoul Housing & Communities Corporation announced the design of Kangnam (principal, Park Jongseo) and Gurlim (principal, Moon Chanjeong) as the winner in its Design Competition for Wirye A1-14BL Newlywed Hope Town. The design competition was conducted to provide more than 555 households and district welfare facilities for newlywed couples on the land site development project region in Geoyeodong, Songpa-gu, Seoul. The chosen design will position three high-rise tower apartments in the vicinity of a neighbourhood town to connect the households with green belt land, creating an ‘in-between street’ that will encourage communication between residents, and devise various new open spaces, streets, and plazas within the district. The examining committee explained that the…

THING Everyone has something that they care about. This article is about the things that protect and brighten the everyday lives of architects. The first thing I do when I wake up is put on my glasses. As a consequence, it could be said that the awakening of my consciousness is assisted by my glasses. I currently own six pairs of glasses. I have two corrective pairs for my myopia and astigmatism with me at all times, two pairs of reading glasses placed respectively at the office table and on my bedside table for reading, a pair of sunglasses in my bag for when I’m outdoors, a multifocal pair of glasses that I use for meetings outside, and a pair of driving sunglasses in my car. Glasses are composed of…

Without realising it, the designation of a large or small park has been overwritten by the Sunset Law for Urban Parks introduced last July. The places that were so familiar to us – to the extent we did not feel the need to keep a record of them – are now disappearing without trace. Expressing regret at this situation, the graphic designer Lee Jaeyoung has published a photobook Parks in Seoul, which features images and prose passages, in collaboration with the photographer Park Hyunsung and musician Kim Mokin. SPACE shared reflections with this group who in a single book have so sensitively captured the parks, their seasons, and the impact such spaces have on people and their lives. Kim Yeram: I heard that you began planning Parks in Seoul after…

Dialogue with Architects from Southeast Asia 6 Through 12 settings, architect Park Changhyun discusses with architects of various generations from Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand and Malaysia on the topic of residence. This series article intends to share the reflections and thoughts of these contemporary architects from Southeast Asia and share their present positions with its readers. Dam Vu majored in architecture at Saigon University. He moved to Lund, Sweden from 2010 to 2012 and expanded his perspective on architecture by engaging with in-depth architectural research and travelling across many European countries. In 2013, he founded Kientruc O with Anni Le in Saigon, Vietnam. He is engaged in architectural activities that promote and accommodate a coherent symbiosis between humans and the environment. He seeks architectural manifestations that are the result of keen…