The 4th Gwangju Design Biennale
Design is Design is not Design
2 September – 23 October 2011
Gwangju Biennale Hall and all around the city of Gwangju
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Design is Design is not Design 圖 可 圖 非 常 圖
The Gwangju Biennale Foundation has appointed Seung H-Sang, a Korean architect, and Ai Weiwei, a Chinese artist and architectural designer, as co-directors of the 4th Gwangju Design Biennale. Eight curators and two designers have also been appointed for six major sections of the thematic exhibition. The 4th Gwangju Design Biennale will be held at the Biennale Exhibition Hall and throughout the metropolitan city of Gwangju from September 2nd to October 23rd 2011.
Seung H-Sang has completed Paju Book City project in Korea, and he has gained international recognitions through projects like Guggenheim Pavilion in Abu Dhabi, Chao-Wei SOHO project in Beijing as well as Korea DMZ Peace-Life Valley, the graveyard of late former President Roh Moo-hyun and Commune by the Great Wall. He served as a commissioner of Korean Pavilion for Venice Architecture Biennale in 2008. He operates the architectural firm, Iroje, which he established in 1989.
Ai Weiwei is influential artist, curator, social commentator and activist. His ground-breaking work Sunflower Seeds was recently presented at the Tate Modern Turbine Hall. The work consisted of 100 million porcelain seeds, each individually hand painted by 1,600 Chinese artisans. Ai’s work has been exhibited in the Venice Biennale, Documenta, the Guangzhou Triennial, the Biennale of Sydney among others. He served as creative consultant with the Swiss architectural firm Herzog & De Meuron for their “bird’s nest” Beijing Olympic Stadium project modeledn.
The theme of Gwangju Design Biennale is dogadobisangdo (圖可圖非常圖, Design is Design is not Design), and will be divided into 6 different sections. Dogagobisangdo will reinterpret the boundaries between design and non-design, and look back and explain a variety of design concepts that determine the value of civilized society or are recognized as absolute accessories. The exhibition theme, inspired by the first words in ‘Do Duk Kyeong (Tao Te Ching, 道德經)’ of No Ja (Lao Tzu, 老子) – ‘The way道 that is the way is not always the way. The name名 that is the name is not always the name.’, throws a complex question to the viewers with the interpretation of ‘design is design is not always design and non-design is non-design is not always non-design’. The sections of the exhibition theme and their curators, designers and coordinators are as follows:
Academy and Thematic Installation
Curator: Pai Hyungmin
Section 1: Named Design
Curator: Minsuk Cho, Anthony Fontenot
Section 2: Unnamed Design
Curator: Brendan McGetrick
Section 3: Urban Follies
Curator: Kim Youngjun, Ramon Prat
Section 4: Community
Curator: Beatrice Galilee, Youngjune Kiehm
Biennale City
Designer: Francisco Sanin, Jaejun Lee
Publicity Coordinator: Kyungsik Min
For More information visit here.
