Smashing Success for
Gwangju Design Biennale
Organizers expect the global event to attract huge crowds

Gwangju, long remembered for its gallant struggle for democracy against authoritarian governments, built another image as the home to Gwangju Biennale. Now organizers of the event is trying to enhance that image by holding Gwangju Design Biennale to make the city a leading art town in the world. The event slated for October 18-November 3 will be an impressive event as the organizers have the know-how to make an international art event a smashing success after holding the Gwangju Biennale five times and making it one of the most authoritative fine arts events in Asia.
Kim Jae-kyu, secretary-general of Gwangju Design Biennale, is certain that the planned artistic event will be a memorable event again with designers from 90 firms in the world participating including a number of internationally well-known designers.
Following are the excerpt of an exclusive interview with the secretary-general by president-publisher of NewsWorld Elizabeth M. Oh.
Question: What is the significance of holding the Gwangju Biennale and its history?
Answer: The Gwangju Biennale is the largest international art event in Korea and the most authoritative international modern fine arts festival in Asia. The global event was the results of a policy to develop regional art industry with the opening of local autonomous age in Korea. We needed a link the region and the international communities to uplift the regional culture in line with the age of local autonomy. We decided to hold the fine arts event in Gwangju to uphold its artistic tradition and the legacy for its citizens resistance against authoritarian governments for democracy.
The first Gwangju Biennale went on record as a great success going beyond expectations due to sound preparations and the support from the regional community with more than 1.6 million viewers coming to the event, an experience that we and the Asian cultural community never anticipated.
The impact of the surprise success opened the way for other similar international cultural events to follow in Asia including Busan Biennale, Gyeonggi Province Celadon Biennale in Korea, Yokohama Triennale, and Shanghai Biennale in Asia. Gwangju ignited a cultural boom in Asia leading to the globalization of Asian arts.
Gwangju Biennale is slated to have its 6th event. The first event held in 1995 had a theme of "over borders'transcending ideals, states, religion and mankind, focusing on the age's society and culture. The second event focused on the Orient's major themes with the third one having a theme of human being, displaying the possibility for a complex cultural event mixing screen images, display and festivity. The fourth event with a theme of 'suspension'expanded the channel of understanding between viewers and the display. The fifth one with a theme of 'a dirt and a water drop'pointed up ecological problems focusing on nature and its order.The 6th one slated for next year will have a theme of 'hot wind and musical variation' to show Asia's march to the world.
Q: What was the background for the first Gwangju Design Biennale slated to open on October 18?
A: Designing is a high value-added industry to lead the 21st century and Gwangju recognized the significance to include it as one of its three key strategic industries under a long-term plan. We decided to hold the event, recalling its experiences for holding biennales as part of a growth strategy for the design industry.
Gwangju Biennale, which has been held five times already, has become a representative Korean artistic entity, gaining a lot of experience for holding such international events. The Gwangju Biennale Foundation has decided to hold the design event putting into use its accumulated know-how for success of the projected event to make Gwangju city become a home to a new flow of design.
The October 18 event is different from other similar events in a number of ways; it would be the first such event to showcase all sectors of design, not limited to industry, daily life and other specific areas. As its theme, 'light into life' suggests, it would focus on integration of practical and aesthetic matters to spot light on a view point to life and culture with design.
Q: Could you please explain the Biennale? theme, 'light into life' and details of the exhibition?
A: Light means Gwangju; light, brightness, hope, truth, and intellect to signify the value of design. Living also means living and life, making up objectives of design. Design, which connects light and living, wonders about its role to make living affluent and what are values with universal nature to become a light for human life and attempts to find its answers.
The event will have two major exhibition sections and seven special display sections.
The main section No.1 will have a number of famous foreign designers' design products on display including designers of Samsung Electronics, Nissan and Motorola about 90 firms from 25 countries. Famous foreign designers would include Karim Rashid, Syd Mead and Alessandro Mendini. Main section No.2 will feature Asian design products to show off the possibility of Asian designers and potentials.
The special exhibitions will have the products of Korean designers and those of young foreign designers to show the current world trends in design The special exhibit No.4 will be entitled, "Gwangju, the Future City,"which will be made brighter with the display of famous designer Alessandro Mendini? environmental object. In addition, the event will have an international academic conference, workshop, and festivity to make it an integrated design event.
Q: What? the projection for viewers and publicity?
A: The foundation expects to attract some 250,000 viewers. We do not expect any problems attracting viewers provided that we put on an adequate publicity campaign because the event will be available only in Gwangju and there are many things to see. We have been doing publicity campaign at primary, middle, and high schools especially on the educational value of design.
We also have been carrying out a publicity campaign at universities, and businesses on design on a steady basis. For foreign viewers, we have already visited Japan and China to attract foreign viewers, along with E-mails and other publicity materials to media firms and groups linked to design. We expect many foreign viewers to come to Gwangju for the event due to its uniqueness.
Q: What kind of effect do you expect from the Biennale?
A: The event is truly one to be long remembered as it would be an integrated display event for the first time in the world, borrowing the name of biennale. It will show all phases of design related to daily life, communication, and transportation. First and foremost, the event will try to make Gwangju a center of design in Asia with the city endowed with rich tradition and history with the burgeoning high-tech industry making the city suitable to be a home to the design industry. Through the event, Gwangju would become a home to a new flow of the world design industry as the city is a high value-added traditional cultural and design metropolis. Both biennales in Gwangju would come together to boost the fame of Gwangju as a cultural high-tech city in the 21st century.
Q: What plans do you have to make Gwangju Biennale into one of the five best biennales in the world?
A: We can name biennales in Venice, Italy, Whitney in the U.S., Sao Paolo, Brazil, and Kassel Documenta, Germany, as some of the best known biennales in the world and each of them has its own features to dominate the artistic flow of the world. The Gwangju event is a late starter and has a lot to catch up with them in terms of world reputation, as they are the best biennales in the world. But Gwangju has already won recognition as a worldly event and one of the five best ones in the world if we may say so.
Furthermore, Gwangju has a strong support in Asia. Asia had been invaded and dominated by Western culture for a long time, but its cultural power started to grow with its weight in the world expanding. Gwangju Biennale was a turning point for Asia's cultural take-off; Gwangju is the ignition point and the symbol of Asian cultural code. The event is not only our pride, but for all Asians'joint achievement. Gwangju Biennale would emerge as a worldly cultural code with the growth of Asia.
Q: Is there anything else you would like to share with our readers?
A: The Design Biennale, the first to be held this year, would be a truly memorable event as the world's first integrated design exhibition based on a revolutionary idea. We hope to have many visitors to our event from October 18 to November 3 and reconfirm the value of design and make your lives so much richer. nw

Dignitaries cut the tape to open Gwangju Design Biennale at KimDaeJung Convention Center in Gwangju.

Kim Jae-kyu, secretary-general of Gwangju Design Biennale.

The design of Mono Track Cross Machine.

The design of Prayer with lotus flowers.