Gwangju Biennale

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Under the theme “The Clue” the Gwangju Design Biennale 2009 sets out to reevaluate the truism “think globally and act locally” by examining five examples of traditional Korean culture. These examples will be used to bring the potentialities of very specific local solutions to the fore and reconfigure them in an international design context: Perfect design is enacted in clothing, eating, living, enlightening and enjoying. Because these five human actions form the basis of a complete and harmonious life across all cultures, they are also themes in which designers, who want to improve that life, may search for clues. In the past, ideology, technology and market trends have dominated thinking about design. Through the history of recent social and economic flux, the existential questions, 'what is a good life' or 'what is the purpose of a good life?' have found practical applications in culture's everyday relationship to design. The extraordinary resources, objects and values upon which Korean culture thrives, serve as a starting point for international designers and artists in their creation of new design concepts.

The Gwangju Design Biennale 2009 is an engine for the viewing of responsible and innovative design worldwide through the lens of Korean culture. Recognizing design as a holistic life means design is not a separate category but is integrated into life. As such, the Gwangju Design Biennale 2009 is more than the sum of its parts, developing its own identity as a multidimensional and forward-looking international exhibition within and outside of the walls of the Gwangju exhibition space: linking motifs of Korean culture to global professional design culture and global culture at large.

The five themes of ‘Clothing’, ‘Eating’, ’Living’, ‘Enlightening’ and ‘Enjoying’ are expressed with the Korean words of ‘옷 [Ot]’, ‘맛 [Mat]’, ‘집Jip], ‘글 [Geul]’ and ‘소리 [Sori]'. The curators of each theme exhibition try to pinpoint their relevance to Korean culture and design. 'Clothing' is stratified into subjects: from the significance of traditional costume, to haute couture, to the garment as a work of art. Form uplifts function in 'Eating', where the symbolic color of food and the Korean ceremonial table setting are reinterpreted. The organic spaces of the theme 'Living' offer elemental architectural inspiration. The themes 'Enlightening' and 'Enjoying' examine Korea's unprecedented specializations in the fields of graphic design and music. Each of the five themes will be filtered and interpreted through a set of responses by international artists and designers, who will create specific works in reaction to the Korean tradition, thus taking the potentialities of Korean design culture to a global level.

Three expanded projects cross section the five culturally located themes. 'Design to Save', 'Design to Care' and 'Design to Share,' proactively address major topics of global contemporary design such as sustainability, Universal Design and social engagement. Many of these projects utilize the citizens, economy and site of Gwangju with global enterprise.

For Korea, the exhibition will be a venue in which to lay the groundwork for a new design culture, propelled, as the title suggests, by assets arising from the expanded meanings of traditional cultural manifestations and their interpretations by international artists and designers.