Sections of Autonomy. Six Korean Architects

SpazioFMG per l’Architettura, Iris Ceramica and FMG Fabbrica Marmi e Graniti’s gallery and showroom, marks its tenth anniversary by continuing to focus on contemporary architecture in less frequently explored parts of the world with an exhibition about South Korea: “Sections of Autonomy. Six Korean Architects”.
SpazioFMG per l’ Architettura is the second location to host this exhibition curated by Choi Won-joon and Luca Galofaro, which opened at Fondazione Pastificio Cerere in Rome and now appears in a new version with the contribution of Milanese curator Luca Molinari.
The exhibition explores the work of a generation of professionals
who started out in their careers in the late ‘90s and early 2000s. In a country that was finally democratic, free of the ideological pressure of twenty years of dictatorship, these architects were able to express their own individual character, focusing on issues of current relevance and successfully combining appreciation of local culture with awareness of the progress being made on the international architecture scene.
The six architects’ work is represented through their words, the technical drawings and models made by their studios, and the professional photographs they have commissioned. This kaleidoscopic vision reflects the liveliness and complexity of the urban landscape in Korean cities, where very high population density produces development of ever-new forms of intersection and stratification of public, collective and private spaces.
The exhibition focuses on the work of: Choi Moon-gyu (Ga.A Architects), Jang Yoon-gyoo (Unsangdong Architects Cooperation), Kim Jong-kyu (M.A.R.U.), Kim Jun-sung (Architecture Studio hANd), Kim Seung-hoy (KYWC Architects), Kim Young-joon (YO2 Architects). 

“The exhibition is the story of a generation’s attempt to rethink the relationship between architecture and urban space. These six architects attempt to define the city as a place for collective living. Each building defines a precise urban form in which the boundary between public and private seems to disappear,” explains Luca Garofalo, curator of the exhibition in Rome.
“Attention in the west continues to be directed towards Asia, particularly China with its large-scale projects and Japan with its experimentation. Korea does not attempt to amaze us with colossal projects, nor does it transform research in architecture into an individual’s need to express his or her own desires, but establishes the boundaries of the new objectivity.”
And it is precisely to offer the Milanese public a glimpse of one of the world’s lesser-known contemporary architecture scenes that SpazioFMG is hosting “Sections of Autonomy. Six Korean Architects”. According to the gallery’s scientific director Luca Molinari, “SpazioFMG is celebrating its tenth birthday by confirming its interest in the most experimental situations and places. After going to Japan with ‘Architecture as a piece of nature’ (2011), looking at the African continent in ‘Together. Visions from contemporary African architecture’ (2014), and exploring Norway through photographs in ‘Norway. Architecture, infrastructure, landscape’ (2016), hosting ‘Sections of Autonomy. Six Korean Architects’ offers us
a valuable opportunity to find out more about the urban landscape and architecture of South Korea: very high quality architecture which very few people know about outside the country.” 

The exhibition catalogue edited by Luca Galofaro with texts by Choi Won-joon, Stefania Manna and Alessandro Toti will be presented at the opening of ‘Sections of Autonomy. Six Korean Architects’ at 6.30 pm on Monday, 3 April, during Design Week in Milan.
“The stratification of design experience illustrated in the exhibition is reconstructed in the catalogue in Choi Won-joon’s essay describing the cultural climate and political and economic circumstances in which the architects developed their ideas, while Alessandro Toti introduces us to the country’s history and Stefania Manna reflects this idea of a new objectivity achieved with special care, not so much for technical innovation but for quality use of materials.” Luca Galofaro

Sections of Autonomy. Six Korean Architects
catalogue of the exhibition of the same name held at Pastificio Cerere in Rome (3-21 February 2017) and
SpazioFMG per l’Architettura,in Milan (3 April - 12 May 2017) edited by Luca Galofaro
with contributions by Choi Won-joon, Stefania Manna, Alessandro Toti.
Libria, Melfi, 2017    OPENING Monday, 3 April 2017 h 6.30 pm

Vai alla guida d'arte di Milan