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Seoul Design Foundation celebrates 10 years of 'Open Curating' with exhibition at DDP

Published: 16 Feb. 2025, 07:00

SHIN MIN-HEE
[email protected]

Installation view of the ″DDP Open Curating Archive″ exhibition at the Dongdaemun Design Plaza in central Seoul [SEOUL DESIGN FOUNDATION]

For the past decade, the Seoul Design Foundation has supported 200 up-and-coming designers through its "DDP Open Curating" project.

In the form of a contest, a judging committee would select designers based on samples of works that are deemed to have potential. The chosen designers would then be given the opportunity to hold exhibitions at the Dongdaemun Design Plaza (DDP) in Jung District, central Seoul.

The foundation has held 35 exhibitions as part of this project.

Now, it is currently exhibiting the 10-year history and archive of the project at the Gallery Moon inside the DDP.

Among the 200 designers, the focus of the exhibition is on 14 selected individuals or teams who have particularly shown notable growth. These include Han Yoon-chung, Z-Lab, Ordinary People, Kim Kim Lab, Studio Nolgong and Studio newtab-22.

On view are the end products of what the designers have made since holding their "Open Curating" exhibitions at the DDP, respectively.

For example, Han is a media artist based in San Francisco and Seoul who held her "Open Curating" exhibition in 2016. The theme was, "Visual Music," which used visual and auditory elements to "break the boundaries between the senses."

Since then, Han has presented her works at numerous institutions like the National Museum of Korean Contemporary History and the Busan Cinema Center and is focusing on raising awareness of environmental issues through data.

Ordinary People is a design studio comprised of college friends that were selected in the "Open Curating" project in 2021. It has designed logos for museums and brands, like the Hoam Museum of Art and Hyundai Motor Studio, and album artwork for BTS's “Proof" (2022), J-Hope's "Hope on the Street Vol. 1" (2024), Agust-D's "D-Day" (2023) and Jungkook's "Seven" (2023).

"DDP Open Curating Archive" continues until March 31. The DDP is open from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. The exhibition is free.

BY SHIN MIN-HEE [[email protected]]