smow blog compact: Tools for A Break – Korean Crafts and Design at Orangelab, Berlin

Shium is the many ways the Korean antipode to our modern world: Shium is decelerate, rest, relax, pause, reflect, slow down. Refresh body and soul

Shium is also the foundation on which the exhibition Tools for A Break – Korean Crafts and Design is built, and following its première during Munich Creative Business Week 2015, Tools for A Break – Korean Crafts and Design is currently on show in Berlin.

Tools for A Break – Korean Crafts and Design at Orangelab Berlin

Fascinated by the diversity of meaning within the term Shium, its contemporary relevance and inspired by the essay Müdigkeitsgesellschaft – The Tired Society – by Berlin based South Korean philosopher and cultural theorist Byung-Chul Han, a work which criticises the modern performance orientated society, curator Keumhwa Kim from Keum Art Projects set about compiling a collection of contemporary objects by Korean artists and designers which address approaches to alternative, decelerated, lifestyles.

In addition to projects such as, for example, the Line and Union furniture collection by Park Jai Woo, the Kkini bowl and chopsticks set by Song Seung Yong or Sang Woo Kim’s smoked clay collection which were presented in Munich, the Berlin exhibition features works by three additional designers.

Munich based silversmith Ja-kyung Shin is presenting a new collection of spoons in which antique precious metal window and door fittings have been extended with silver to create a collection of objects as fascinating as they are endearing, and which wonderfully illustrates that upcycling needn’t just be for students and fans of felt, upcycling can also be something noble.

A spoon created from an antique window fitting and silver by Ja-kyung Shin, as seen at Tools for A Break – Korean Crafts and Design, Orangelab Berlin

Much more rooted, almost literally, in Korean cultural traditions, Berlin based textile designer Jinhee Kim is represented by a concept material created from knitted mulberry bark fibres filled with wool; a project conceptionally and visually reminiscent of silkworm cocoons and a product which can be used, for example, as a simple room divider with acoustic function, or as a wall hanging with acoustic and cushioning function, while, and proving that you can take the designer out of Eindhoven but you can’t take Eindhoven out of the designer, Design Academy Eindhoven graduate Sanghyeok Lee is presenting the most delightful collection of sculptural seating devices. Titled “For a rest” the collection is inspired, as with all genuinely delightful pieces of design work, by a simple observation; in a forest there is no regular resting place rather you must always search and find your place and position. The wooden elements of the “For a rest” collection are unquestionably inspired by shapes and forms found in the forest, and equally unequivocally offer no obvious indication of how they are best to be used. At the moment “For a rest” is still a very conceptual work, but one with a lot of future potential and whose further development we very much look forward to following.

Some three quarters of the designers represented are based in Korea, and for many of them Tools for A Break is their first exposure to a German, if not European, public; consequently in addition to being an interesting and entertaining exhibition in its own right Tools for A Break also offers a rare, curated, insight into contemporary Korean creativity as opposed to the commercial “look how good our computers are” style of most Korean design exhibitions.

In our post from the Munich exhibition we noted that Tools for A Break “simply presents the objects and leaves you in peace to find your own relationship with them. Or not.” The Berlin showcase repeats that sense of ease, albeit thanks to the extra space offered by Orangelab does so in a much more open and accessible way that gives you even more time and peace to find your own sense of Shium.

Tools for A Break – Korean Crafts and Design runs at Orangelab, Ernst-Reuter-Platz 2, 10587 Berlin until Saturday May 30th.

In addition to the exhibition, on Thursday May 21st a discussion evening will be held under the title “Entschleunigung: Über das Pausieren in der Großstadt”

Full details can be found at www.keumprojects.com