Anything, Something:
the 5th Gwangju Design Biennale
September 6–November 3, 2013

Young Hye Lee is president and CEO of Design House, Inc., the leading publishing house and media group in Korea. She has been at the forefront of the development and growth of the domestic design industry since the late 1970s. Lee began her career as a writer and editor for the pioneering journal Design in 1976. In 1980, she took over publication of the journal and proceeded to launch six other design and lifestyle-related monthlies, including Home Style & Living, Mom & Enfant, My Wedding, Luxury, Men’s Health, and Style H.

Since the 1990s, Lee began organizing design-related fairs and events both in Korea and abroad in order to further enrich and diversify the design field; Lee launched the Seoul Living Design Fair in 1994 and the Seoul Design Festival in 2002. In addition to heading Design House, Inc., Lee also runs the Strategic Design Institute and Design TV.

Anything, Something
Titled Anything, Something, the 5th Gwangju Design Biennale will explore cultural habits, shared knowledges, and coded contexts that inform the many unspoken ways in which we communicate with one another. Our use of empty or ambiguous signifiers or placeholders, such as “anything” and “something” key into different elements of communication beyond literal speech such as emotional and cultural prompts as well as responses. The ability to grasp these hidden contexts and habits in our day-to-day communication can be especially important for designers who constantly search for insight into new, subconscious or concealed needs and wants.

This exhibition concept is inspired by two Korean words widely used in the Jeolla province, “GUSIGI, MASIGI,” which refer to an object or idea when the actual name escapes the mind, and is equivalent to the phrase “what do you call it” in English. “GUSIGI, MASIGI” are excellent keywords for designers sensitive to both familiar and new environments who strive toward creative forms of understanding and expression.

The 5th Gwangju Design Biennale will be organized around the following five components—a Thematic Exhibition, a Gwangju Exhibition, an International Forum on Design, a Workshop, and a Public Participation Program.