Time to check-out new designs

A bedspread by Tiago de Fonseca featured in the “single Room” section of the “It’s Hotel” exhibition. Provided by Seoul Arts Center

Design explores the boundaries of the practical and figurative at the third annual “Design MADE ― Manifesto for Annual Design Exhibition” at the Hangaram Design Museum in the Seoul Arts Center, southern Seoul. The event, organized to showcase new design ideas from up-and-coming artists, centers on a single theme every year, with this year’s theme being hotels.
The “It’s Hotel” exhibition will feature 26 local artists and 15 foreign design teams from England, Switzerland, Canada and Japan examining the significance of modern hotel design.
The main exhibition will be divided into four parts: Single Room, Double Room, Business Room and Suite Room. Artist Wohn So-hee's “Weird Objects for Weird Users?” taps into the fear of loneliness in the Single Room category, using a device that, when placed on the head, makes the wearer deaf. The artist also presents various objects to support her three themes relating to communication ― “talk to myself,” “talk to the environment” and “talk to others.” Tiago da Fonseca from Portugal and Bas Kools from the Netherlands will also have work in this section.
Themes regarding relationships with another human being are on display in the Double Room section in which artists including Debra Clarke from the United Kingdom, Kim Ki-hyun and design team Real Design Group offer their take on double rooms.

Design group Molo Design introduces their work “Soft Project” in which thin pieces of paper and cotton are used to make a shape resembling a beehive. Although the material used is soft and light, the elasticity of the combined elements suggests the creation of a team or a large corporate environment.
Suite Room will be the most dreamlike and visually engaging section as artists delve into the idea of fantasy and a space that resembles reality but is, at the same time, otherworldly. Christopher Pearson from the United Kingdom plus Motoshi Chikamori and Kyoko Kuno from Japan will be featured.
And there will be the “Design Incubator” where young designers get a chance to meet the professionals who are participating in the exhibition as well as a “Designer Market” where the designs will be on sale.

“It’s Hotel” will run from Oct. 3 to 22 in the Hangaram Design Museum at the Seoul Arts Center in Seocho-dong, southern Seoul. The nearest subway station is Nambu Bus Terminal, line No. 3, exit 5. For more information, visit www.designmade.org or www.sac.or.kr or call (02) 580-1489.

By Cho Jae-eun Staff Writer [jainnie@joongang.co.kr]