Bae Sung-Won, Lee Min-Ju Cub-Reporter

To commemorate the 140th anniversary of diplomatic relations between South Korea and Italy, our university’s Oriental Culture and Design Center (OCDC) has partnered with Milano Associazione per il Disegno Industriale (ADI) Design Museum to hold the 2024 Design Beyond East and West (DBEW) exhibition.

At the invitation of the Milano ADI Museum which bestows the Compasso D&Oro award, this exhibition- including the Salone del Mobile International Design fair and the Milan Design walk- was held for around a month from Apr.16 to May.5 at the ADI Museum. Under the direction of the DBEW, this year’s theme is ‘Ottchil Furniture and Design’. Professor Choi Gyung-Ran of the Department of Spatial Design at Kookmin University (KMU), who was chosen as the curator, said, “This exhibition was planned to promote designs that are sustainable and fit the characteristics of our living culture by applying a world-class traditional technique of lacquer to everyday functional furniture, and to expand the value of modern lifestyle design.”

<Lacquering, Technique for Korean Art Forever> Lacquer is Korea’s traditional artificial supply which is created by refining sap from poison ivy. It does not have any chemical additives and is heat-resistant. <Furniture, Expression of Our Life> It is necessary to pay attention to the usage of lacquer on newly designed furniture for the DBEW exhibition.

Thanks to the fusion of modern technique and traditional manufacture, it showed innovation in extending lacquer’s usage from small products to huge furniture. This exhibition is a collaboration between the embassies of Italy and South Korea, the Korea Cultural Center, the Italy Cultural Center in Korea, and the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism (MCST). It is hosted by OCDC, ADI Design Museum, and GDB, sponsored by Hanjin Inc., Korean Air Inc., and Fursys Inc. Interview with Professor Choi Gyung-Ran of the Department Spatial Design at KMU:

1. Congratulations on holding the 2024 DBEW with Milano ADI Design Museum. Can you explain what the OCDC does? => Thank you for congratulating me. At OCDC, we focus on observing oriental culture and design, encompassing Korea, China, and Japan. We analyze design knowledge rooted in culture and explore the future development of traditional design through collaborative research efforts.

2. When was the OCDC established, and what was the reason for the establishment? => Since 1993, I have attended the Salone Del Mobille, an international furniture exhibition, and Milano Design Week every year. However, I found that there is no clear direction for the future in Asian traditional design, since Korea’s design industry has not made any efforts to enhance design capabilities. Also, textbooks about design education were all based on Western style, so I established this observation center to discover Korea and Asia's unique design styles.

3. Besides the cooperation with Milano ADI Design Museum, was there any other collaboration with partners in foreign countries? => There was a collaboration on design education focused on the cultural identity of Korea, China, and Japan’s design universities, and one organization sponsored this education. It was the INAX organization in Japan. They sponsored us for 10 years, and we exchanged ideas for planning design exhibitions based on cultural knowledge and traditional backgrounds.

4. OCDC seems to have relations with the College of Design in KMU. Is there any connection with the center's members and systems? => OCDC’s researchers are comprised of students from the Graduate School of Techno Design (TED) at KMU, all of whom have either obtained master’s or doctorate degrees. They showcase their observation results by applying industry-university research, which has become a competitive system. Other universities have tried to benchmark but failed because of KMU’s uniqueness.

sbae7071@kookmin.ac.kr / minjulee@kookmin.ac.kr