2009 Gwangju Design Biennale interiors

Signboards business center

Walking the streets of Korea is a unique experience: buildings come with “subtitles”. Architecture is hidden behind commercial signboards and facades are fully covered with bright words. The “subtitles” offer clues of the services that each space hosts.

In the business center at the entrance of the Biennale we removed the buildings and kept only those clues. Illegal signboards, confiscated by the city officials are used to build walls, tables and partitions. Architecture is finally replaced by its commercial image.

Flying bamboo forest

Hiking in the Danyang Bamboo Forest is also an incredible experience. Verticality is the law. Every other tree offers some perpendicular branch to sit upon, to hang on to or to build a tree-house upon.

Climbing a living bamboo is like climbing a pole and sitting on it is virtually impossible.

So we decided to turn the forest ninety degrees, hanging 50 living bamboo plants on the bridge between galleries. The plants are suspended in a state of life support (they will be fed and watered for two months), while they will provide rest and shade for the Biennale visitors. People will finally be able to sit on the bamboo. At the end of the show they will be replanted: eventually they will carry the clues caused by their unconventional position together with the signs left on them by the interaction with the visitors.

Clue detector / clue dispenser

The main image of the Biennale, the one you see on posters and brochures, is an object pushing against a piece of canvas. You cannot guess what it is, you just understand its shape. At the beginning and the end of the show we wanted to visualize this concept in three dimensions using the same element in two different positions. It is a C shape metal frame wrapped with neutral canvas covering different forms of clues, similar to the ones used in the poster. At the entrance of the show visitors pass under the frame, as if they were going through a metal/clue detector. At the end of the show the C is turned upside down and it is used as a gift/clue dispenser; the place where you can finally buy a piece of the show and take it home with you.

Gallery

Credits

progetto > MOTOElastico [Simone Carena | Marco Bruno], PARANG [Hyosun Chang]; con Christoph Eichberger, Minji Kim, Jackie Sunwoo, Vivien Serveau, Davide Barreri
localizzazione > Gwangju (Korea)
tipologia >allestimento temporaneo
superficie > 6000 mq
cronologia > 2009
crediti fotografici > MOTOElastico