The Gwangju Biennale Foundation is proud to announce the appointment of Young Hye Lee as General Director of the 5th Gwangju Design Biennale: Anything, Something, which will be held from September 6 to November 3, 2013.
Young Hye Lee is president and CEO of Design House, Inc., the leading publishing house and media group in Korea. She has been at the forefront of the development and growth of the domestic design industry since the late 1970s. Lee began her career as a writer and editor for the pioneering journal Design in 1976. In 1980, she took over publication of the journal and proceeded to launch six other design and lifestyle-related monthlies, including Home Style & Living, Mom & Enfant, My Wedding, Luxury, Men’s Health, and Style H. Since the 1990s, Lee began organizing design-related fairs and events both in Korea and abroad in order to further enrich and diversify the design field; Lee launched the Seoul Living Design Fair in 1994 and the Seoul Design Festival in 2002. In addition to heading Design House, Inc., Lee also runs the Strategic Design Institute and Design TV.
Lee holds a Bachelor’s degree in Applied Fine Arts from Hongik University, a Master’s in Magazine Publications in the Department of Communications at Chungang University, and has completed various professional and post-graduate programs at Sogang University, Seoul National University, and Stanford University.
Among other awards and honors, Lee received the High Chevalier of the Order of the Star of Solidarity Award from the Italian government in 2008, the 2007 Pride of Hongik Award from Hongik University in 2008, and the Prime Minister Award for the Equal Employment of the Sexes sponsored by the Labor Ministry of Korea in 2005.
Anything, Something
Titled Anything, Something, the 5th Gwangju Design Biennale will explore cultural habits, shared knowledges, and coded contexts that inform the many unspoken ways in which we communicate with one another. Our use of empty or ambiguous signifiers or placeholders, such as “anything” and “something” key into different elements of communication beyond literal speech such as emotional and cultural prompts as well as responses. The ability to grasp these hidden contexts and habits in our day-to-day communication can be especially important for designers who constantly search for insight into new, subconscious or concealed needs and wants.
This exhibition concept is inspired by two Korean words widely used in the Jeolla province, “GUSIGI, MASIGI,” which refer to an object or idea when the actual name escapes the mind, and is equivalent to the phrase “what do you call it” in English. “GUSIGI, MASIGI” are excellent keywords for designers sensitive to both familiar and new environments who strive toward creative forms of understanding and expression.
The Artistic Director has interpreted GUSIGI, MASIGI as Anything, Something, because the characters ‘것’ – gǔt represents ‘thing’ and ‘멋’ – mǔt represents ‘value.’ Anything gestures to the day-to-day task of designers to create an endless storehouse of ‘things,’ while Something points to the designers’ value-creating role and task to identify specific needs and forms.
The 5th Gwangju Design Biennale will be organized around the following five components—a Thematic Exhibition, a Gwangju Exhibition, an International Forum on Design, a Workshop, and a Public Participation Program.
About the Gwangju Design Biennale
Established by Gwangju Metropolitan City and co-hosted by the Gwangju Biennale Foundation and the Gwangju Design Center, the Gwangju Design Biennale was first initiated in 2004 to help promote the local design industry as well as contribute to national and international design discourses and practices. With the official opening of the first Gwangju Design Biennale, Light into Life in 2005, there have been four editions, including the critically acclaimed Dogadobisangdo (design is design is not design), the most recent, directed by Seung H-sang and Ai Weiwei in 2011.
The Gwangju Biennale Foundation
111 Biennale-ro, Buk-gu
Gwangju, Republic of Korea, 500-845
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www.gwangjubiennale.org
