내일의 전통, 오늘의 관객을 만나다

월간국립극장

왼쪽부터 나건(Ken Nah), 김광진(Kwangjin Kim), 전웅태(Woongtae Jeon),
기보배(Bobae Ki), 정다슬(Daseul Chung), 송진희(Jeanhee Song), Marco Bruno

Q. Tell us about MOTOElastico and your love relationship with Gwangju and the Gwangju Design Biennale?
MOTOElastico is a Design Space Lab, run by Simone Carena, Marco Bruno and Minji Kim with the support of Giulia Nespoli. We have been working in Korea since 2001 and our headquarter is in a multistorey building in the heart of Gwangjang Market in Seoul. In spite of all the recent changes, the Jongno area is still a great source of inspiration for us, both in terms of rough design products and refined street food. These days the market below our office is very popular and people queue for a long time to walk away with different kinds of delicacies: the taste is the sweet reward but the experience is enhanced by the ingenuity of the food design. Street food is smart food, like a toast cut to fit in a paper cup, and it never ceases to amaze us.

Gwangju is very dear to us. Gwangju for us IS the Biennale, also because the Biennale is the reason that brought us to visit the city so many times in the past. We feel the influence and the legacy that the event has over its citizens and we appreciate the value of freedom and democracy that represents. We contributed to the 2009 Gwangju Design Biennale as space designers and it was a great experience. From the beginning we loved the atmosphere, the Biennale is really a bridge between Korean and international design, an opportunity to see new things, learn about interesting projects, exchange opinions, debate concepts and eventually MEET new ideas and new people. We are excited about the opportunity to be part of it again and we are looking forward to contributing to the experience of the audience.

Q. ‘Meet & Eat’ is officially opening the Gwangju Design Biennale. Could you explain the concept of your work?
For this year's Biennale we are in charge of the design of the common spaces and we use the metaphor of Korean street food as a connection between all the galleries. For the Shinsegae we wanted to expand on this idea and meet the world of fashion.

Food connects all people and offers a tasty take on the meeting. The Design of Korean street food is smart, portable “prêt-à-porter”. The expression prêt-à-porter , borrowed from French Fashion, means “ready to wear”, and it indicates clothes not made to measure for individual customers, but sold finished in standard sizes, ready to be worn.

At Gwangju Shinsegae, we wanted to celebrate the smart beauty of Korean street food design, turning three iconic snacks such as “Odeng”, “Tteok-kkochi” and “Gimbap” into fashion icons. The pieces are blown up in scale and instead of being covered with tasty sauces, they are wrapped into colorful patterns generated using variations of the current biennale graphic identity. The three elements are entirely made out of paper that can be recycled at the end of the exhibition. Like Korean smart street food, they are sustainable, generating very little waste. Our work wants to encourage the re-discovery of good design in everyday items: objects that are always in front of us, are taken for granted and are not considered valuable anymore. Hopefully at GDB You can pause to reflect upon their beauty and MEET/BITE them again with renovated pleasure.

Q. Please tell us about your past exhibition projects. In comparison to other exhibitions, what do you find special about the Gwangju Design Biennale?
We were in charge of the design of all the public areas back in 2009. The exhibition at that time was directed by Eun Byungsoo and the theme was “The Clue”. We embraced the main idea, transforming elements from everyday Korean culture (clues), such as black tiles, pvc pojangmacha covers, shop signboards and bamboo trees, into unconventional spaces that could induce a new yet familiar understanding of the original sources. At that time North Korea was pushing its weapon program, so we also hit back with ‘design weapons’, a parade of colorful missile-shaped kiosks, suggesting that creativity is a strong weapon against dictatorship.

Then in 2021, for the “D Revolution” edition directed by Kim Hyunsun, Simone Carena was appointed curator of the International Hall and the main theme of the hall became “Dub Revolution”. Dub is a technique, borrowed from music, that explains our work of contamination and re-mix of foreign elements into a specific cultural context. It is a process that often leads to surprising and unexpected effects.

The two experiences are connected and they tie very well to the theme of the 2023 Design Biennale, Meet Design, directed by Ken Nah: only when you meet something new, someone new, somewhere new, you can reconsider what you already know. It becomes a DUb-re-mix full of clues.

In this sense the Gwangju Design Biennale is unique because it is one of the few events in the world that aims to produce a curated design exhibition. The trend now is to organize Design Weeks that rather than following a specific curatorial line, rely on the creative initiative of each participant. We believe that the debate that the Gwangju Design Biennale is generating is very healthy and greatly contributes to growing a strong design community. We hope we will direct one of these exhibitions one day!

Q. How does being Italian affect your work in Korea? Do you have any thoughts on the difference between Gwangju and Italy in terms of design culture?
We are Italian but we have lived in Korea since 2001 and we think now we are a sort of hybrid because we share our mission with our Korean partner Minji Kim and with our ‘DUB-remix’ Families. Being Italian is for sure a privilege when it comes to art and design: we have a huge and diverse artistic heritage and a strong design industry. However sometimes this condition can be a limit rather than an inspiration. What we appreciate about Korean design culture is its ingenuity, its ability to look at current problems without biases and find solutions that look optimistically about the future. The difference between Gwangju and similar events in Italy is all there: Gwangju is open to more experimentation and it is not afraid of possible failures, while Italy is often concerned in retaining its status and takes limited risks.

Balancing these features is what we would like to achieve in the future.