SeMA, Buk-Seoul Museum of Art presents 《2018 Seoul Focus: Design for Action》, an exhibition aiming to examine and reconsider the development of public design as a part of urban planning. In the capital city of Seoul, public design has met with many obstacles in the course of its reification, including the socio-economic paradigm focusing on the urban gentrification and development as well as personal interests of stake holders, thereby producing an excessive number of public structures of little aesthetic value.
This exhibition is grounded upon the understanding of public art as an expanded field. It holds that public art, in its comprehensive definition, includes every project to design and plan an urban environment intending to increase the value of the site. Recently, in the overall society’s paradigm has shifted: people seek for solutions to urban problems that have been generated by politics stressing urban development and gentrification. Instead, new emphasis has been laid upon the pursuit of sustainable socio-cultural development and the creation of pedestrian-oriented urban environment. Along with these changes, publics sites are reconsidered in relation to the characteristics of local communities. Deviating from the previous economical model of urban development, people shed new light on the value of aesthetic design in the public realm and people’s everyday life. In connection to the civil society’s interest in public art, the public awareness of such matters has brought about diverse alterations as to the social and institutional values, in terms of legislation and policy making.
By analyzing the diverse formal elements of urban public design making up the cityscape, the artists, designers, and organizations participating in this exhibition provide an opportunity for us to engage in a comprehensive dialogue with the field of urban public design from a different standpoint. With the participation of citizens and their support, we expect this exhibition to make contribution to the creation of new urban public design that is user-friendly (useful), aesthetically well-balanced (of aesthetical value), and socially responsible (ethical).
