Alessandro Mendini. table lamp "Amuleto“, 2010. Manufacturer: Daeyoung One for Ramun Korea Co., Ltd. Photo: A. Laurenzo, © Die Neue Sammlung – The Design Museum.

MUNICH.- Explosion and chaos – or Land of the Morning Calm? Design in South Korea oscillates between these extremes. With selected objects Die Neue Sammlung is presenting design, handicrafts and posters from South Korea for the first time, beginning with the 1980s. In South Korea design encompasses both craftwork and the design of industrial products, which enjoy great prestige in a country that has advanced from the poverty of the post-War era to become an industrialized nation. 

The Korean approach to arts and crafts was initially characterized by the search for simple beauty in an everyday product. As such, the sublime simplicity of Korean porcelain objects is just as fascinating as the gently flowing forms of metal vessels. Delicate pieces of jewelry made of unusual materials and handcrafted to perfection lead the way into another dimension, hitherto unparalleled in terms of its innovativeness. Since the “Frankfurt Declaration” (1992) and its call for more “quality over quantity,” this caliber has also come to bear precisely in industrial production and has helped make South Korea a leading culture in Asia today. And that applies to cameras by Samsung and cell phones by LG just as much as to luminaires by Ramun and automobiles by Kia, with their famous “tiger nose.” Yet “Made in Korea” is nowhere to be read; Korean products are only recognizable at second glance – instead it is often brand names that stand for K-design. 

K-Pop, K-style, K-film – the so-called Korean Wave has reached not only all of Asia, but also the West. Yet cultural trends go in both directions, and Korean graphic design is exposed not only to Pop art and comics, but also the Bauhaus and Swiss typography. Contemporary Korean posters show this influence particularly impressively and vividly. This is the first exhibition in Europe devoted specially to this area. Some 100 works from 25 graphic artists and studios from South Korea outline the heterogeneous trends in evidence, from experiments with Hangul typography and 3D rendering to an adoption of the style of the 1970s or 1980s ... explosion? 

The range of assignments encompasses cultural posters for art and design exhibitions, film festivals and performing arts as well as announcements of books, magazines and record markets and posters for music groups, clubs and fashion designers. Alongside in-house commissions for poster competitions we find works relating to humanitarian matters and political protest – e.g. by Na Kim (b. 1979), Bohuy Kim (b. 1985) and the studio Ordinary People – as well as environmental protection and initiatives against excessive urban development, for instance by the designers of Everyday Practice. 

The exhibition presents typographical poetry by the great Hangul reformer Sang-Soo Ahn (b. 1952) and abstract and conceptual design approaches, for example by Chris Ro (b. 1976), Byung-rok Chae (b. 1981) and Dohyung Kim (b. 1974). Moreover, it features 2D/3D transformations (Hoon-dong Chung, b. 1970) and type design (Goo-ryong Kang, b. 1982), surreal fantasies (Byoung-il Sun, b. 1958) and the large, multi-award-winning screenprints by Kum-jun Park (b. 1983), showcasing their technical and creative refinement.