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| The production design of the Park family's living room in Bong Joon-ho's film "Parasite" (2019) / Screenshot from parasitemovie on Instagram |
By Park Han-sol
In Bong Joon-ho's Oscar-winning film, "Parasite" (2019), the production design remains just as memorable as its intense, gripping narrative.
A large wooden table located at the center of the Park family's luxurious living room, which the Kim family hides beneath after their break-in, is one of the key props visualizing the theme of socio-economic class divisions. It is shaped "in the form of stairs, made of four boards of different levels," said Lee Ha-jun, the film's production designer, during an interview with Vulture.
The table, designed by Bahk Jong-sun, is one of 126 pieces of Korean craftworks that will be on display next month during Milan Design Week 2021, the world's biggest annual design and furniture fair since its inception in 1961.
The ninth Korean exhibition, themed, "All about Attitude," will take place from Sept. 5 to 10 at the Palazzo Litta in Milan, Italy, as well as online, the Korea Craft and Design Foundation and the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism announced Wednesday.
Through the works of 21 Korean artisans ― made of glass, ceramics, wood, textile and Korean lacquer ― the exhibition aims not only to showcase the beauty of Korean craft but also to delve into the horizontal relationship among people, nature and objects amid the looming climate crisis. In other words, it explores a new ethical and social praxis that embraces nonhuman agents.
"In this era of the coronavirus, we wanted to break away from anthropocentric practices and pursue horizontal, equal relations among all of the entities involved in design and works of craftsmanship: machines, objects, materials, humans and environment," Kang Jae-young, the exhibition's art director, said in a statement.
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| "White Forest" (2021) by Maeng Wook-jae / Courtesy of KCDF |
Accordingly, the show is divided into three sections: "All about Earthbound," "All about Companion" and "All about Posture."
In "All about Earthbound," works of design and craft are interwoven into an intricate narrative of the sky, the earth and humans. Maeng Wook-jae's ceramic installation, which will be on display, consists of mutated life forms as a visual indication of the ecological, environmental crisis that is approaching us.
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| A ceramic relief and black moon jars from the series, "Planet Metaphor" and "Planet Traditional," (2017-2021) by Kim Sea-young / Courtesy of KCDF |
The last section, "All about Posture," reinterprets Korea's traditional culture of sitting on the floor, through furniture and objects that facilitate such a lifestyle.
It will display the iconic black moon jars of Kim Sea-young, which differ from typical round porcelain jars in the shape of the full moon, as they appear distorted and twisted due to their exposure to abnormally high temperatures of over 1,350 degrees Celsius in the kiln. The jars reflect the harmony between the artist, Kim, and the fire.
The online exhibition rooms will be unveiled to the public and hosted through the website of MoscaPartners, the organizer of Milan Design Week 2021, during the fair.
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| Park Jong-gun's "Jangdo" series (2010-2021) of traditional portable knives kept in ornate cases, attached to Lim Keum-hee's "Dahoe and Mangsu" (2005-2019), decorative traditional Korean cords made of cotton and silk thread / Courtesy of the KCDF |
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