Press
Resource Center
Anything, Something: The 5th Gwangju Design Biennale Closes
.jpg)
Anything, Something: The 5th Gwangju Design Biennale closed its doors yesterday. The biennale included the participation of 328 designers and design firms from 24 countries, about 600 works exhibited in the Gwangju Biennale Hall and at Uijae Museum. With a total number of over 215, 000 visitors, this year's biennale reaffirmed its standing as a premier event in design aesthetics and a central meeting place for the design industry as a whole.
Under the helm of the General Director Young Hye Lee, Anything, Something sought to bring the practical and ethical rather than the aesthetic side of design available to the public. The 5th Gwangju Design Biennale’s expansion into reexamination of industrial aspects of design garnered high acclaim from both the domestic and foreign art and design community.
Underlining the biennale’s direction to incorporate the design-to-production process through a variety of projects that involved participations from the citizen as well as the local industries, “The 59 days of the 2013 Gwangju Design Biennale were especially precious as the viewers were invited to enjoy and complete the Biennale,” stated the Gwangju Biennale Foundation President Yongwoo Lee. He continued, “This year’s edition drew attention even before the opening with the announcement of various projects and it actualized a series of processes ranging from the very inception stage to production, distribution and merchandizing.”
Playing on the homophones [G?sigi M?sigi], the theme “Anything, Something” at once encompasses both the universal/general and the individual/specific?the very idea that “design can be something for anyone and anything with uniqueness” as the General Director Young Hye Lee put in her statement. “Through this exhibition,” she added, “I intend to highlight the idea that design is for the general public and everyday life.”
Of special note is the Rice Distribution Project that embodied the spirit of sharing, a tradition prevalent in Asian cultures as a way of living, incorporated into contemporary design exhibition with an added layer of promoting a vital industry in the region. Throughout 59 days 60,000 bags of organically grown local specialty rice, each in a 250g specially designed mini package, were distributed to the visitors.
The International Academic Events as a collateral program were held on September 6 and 13. The talks given by renowned guest speakers Deyan Sudjic, Brandon Gien, Kengo Kuma and Benjamin Rollins Caldwell drew a big crowd, among whom the local design students participated in the International Desgin Workshop earlier in Damyang under the RCA(Royal College of Art) tutelage were most notable.
The Gwangju Desgin Biennale wishes to thank all of the curators, participating designers, collectors or institutions who loaned works, writers, photographers and installation technicians who helped make this Biennale a success.
The Opening of the Gwangju Folly II, art and architectural project under director Nikolaus Hirsch, will take place on November 10 and 11, 2013 and will coincide with an international conference and the launch of the new publication Folly.
The 2014 Gwangju Biennale, under director Jessica Morgan will run from September, 5- November 9, 2014.
Media contact:
International Relations and Communications Manager
Public Relations Department / Jisu Cook
T +82 (0) 62 608 4223 / F +82 (0) 62 608 4229 / jisu.cook@gwangjubiennale.org