Venice Architecture Biennale Korea Pavilion 2018, Exhibition, Image, Ireland Design Show
Venice Biennale Korean Pavilion 2018
Korean Architecture Exhibition in Italy design by Korea Engineering Consultants Corp. (KECC)
19 Apr 2018
Venice Biennale Korean Pavilion 2018 News
Venice Biennale Korean Pavilion 2018 by KECC
Pavilion of Korea at the 16th International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia
Spectres of the State Avant-garde
The Korean Pavilion at the 16th International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia will present Spectres of the State Avant-garde, an imagined archive of the Korea Engineering Consultants Corp. (KECC), a technical consultancy for architecture and civil engineering established by the government in 1963.
The City of Radical Shift, 2018 © N.E.E.D. Architecture, Sungwoo Kim (N.E.E.D. Architecture):
Curated by Park Seongtae, founding director of the Junglim Foundation in Seoul, Spectres of the State Avant-garde seeks to reconstruct a hidden narrative about the state’s paradoxical pursuit of a utopian vision for society through oppressive government policy.
Choon Choi, Paradise Lost 100 Days of Ennui, Desire, and Privation, 2018 © Choon Choi:
KECC enjoyed an unparalleled dominance over Korea’s architecture and construction industry, and the breadth of its activities reached beyond civil engineering and infrastructural projects to include urban master plans and expo pavilions. Their visions at times mimicked the radical architectural experiments of the West but more often assumed a pragmatic attitude in line with the state developmental agenda.
Dream Cells, 2018 © BARE Jinhong Jeon, Yunhee Choi
The master plan for Yeouido, 1968 © KECC
The exhibition presents four projects by KECC from the late 1960s, all of which served as nation-building propaganda: The Expo Pavilion for Osaka Expo 1970 was a venue for showcasing Korea as a nation-state on the world stage; the utopian master plan for Yeouido symbolized the brilliant future promised by the economic development plans; the Sewoon Arcades heralded the wave of urban renewal projects, and the Guro Industrial Exposition signaled the beginning of a new era of affluence.
The model of the Korean Pavilion at Osaka Expo70, 1969 © KECC
The first two projects were symbolic gestures for announcing the trajectory of the new nation-state, whereas the other two projects were evidence for the imminent realization of economic prosperity.
SGHS, Building States, 2018 SGHS
Choon Choi © Texture on texture
Hyun Seok Kang, Gunho Kim (SGHS) © Texture on texture
Curator Park Seongtae said: “Despite KECC’s undisputed influence over Korea’s subsequent urban paradigm that continues to this day, their stories remain as a blind spot in the architectural history of Korea. The vacuum of archival evidence has led to various historical assessments, ranging from adulation as the mythical pioneer of contemporary Korean architecture to resentful dismissal of their work as a Faustian bargain.
Hyun-Suk Seo © Texture on texture:
Jidon Jung © Texture on texture:
Its apparition still haunts the architectural imagination in Korea, and the 2018 Korean Pavilion is an attempt to dive into this historical void to meet face-to-face the ghost of KECC. By exorcising its contradictory legacies, we may discover, beneath the ashes of the State Avant-garde, clues for building new forms of civic space for the postdevelopmental and post-national society today.”
Official press conference: 24 May 2018, 2pm Location: in front of Korean Pavilion
Opening ceremony: 24 May 2018, 3pm. Location: in front of Korean Pavilion
Jinhong Jeon, Yunhee Choi (BARE) © Texture on texture
Sungwoo Kim (N.E.E.D. Architecture) © Texture on texture
Venice Biennale Pavilion of Korea 2018 Commissioner & Curators
Venice Biennale Korean Pavilion 2018 Commissioner and Curator Profiles
Commissioner: Arts Council Korea Arts Council Korea (ARKO), commissioner of the Korean Pavilion at Biennale Architettura 2018, is South Korea’s most renowned funding agency that supports access to arts and cultural activities for Korean citizens. Established as The Korean Culture and Arts Foundation in 1973‚ it was later restructured as Arts Council Korea in 2005, made of council members composed of artists to make practice-oriented policies. ARKO has supported diverse arts projects to lay the foundation for the growth of literature, visual arts, and performing arts to achieve its goal of sharing benefits of arts and culture with the public.
Curator: Park Seongtae b. Seoul, South Korea, 1964; lives and works in Seoul, South Korea [email protected]
Park Seongtae is founding director of the Junglim Foundation, established with the aim of developing a healthy ecosystem for Korean architecture and revitalising the local community. Seongtae has contributed to publications and journals such as Architecture Newspaper, Architecture School, and has worked as an editor of Monthly Art and editor-in-chief of In Seoul Magazine and Space. In his role as curator, he has worked on New Shelters: Architecture Proposals for Refugees (2016), Coliving Scenarios (2014), Mr. pavilion is Coming to Town (2015) and Nextopia (2017).
Location: Venice, Italy
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