Choon Choi is a well-known Korean architect and a rigorous intellectual. He is a part of the technical team of the Korean pavilion for the Venice Biennale 2019. The curator of this edition is Hyunjin Kim, who proposed a puna proposal that blends the International and the feminine, entitled, "History Failed Us, but No Matter." He counts as guest artist with Hwayeon Nam, Siren Eun Young Jung and Jane Jin Kaisen.
The lecture by Choon Choi will be on his personal work.
The lecture by Choon Choi will be on his personal work.
Below, some ideas about Korean pavilion for the Venice Biennale 2019.
About the idea
Choon, will also examine the relationship between the space of architecture and that of the arts, the specific functions of an architecture to exhibit. This secret nature of the exhibition, this act of displaying, of staging, touches on very profound themes that concern not only the space but more in general the sense of history, the relations between the West and extreme eastern culture, always specific and identity but even more and more westernized, the organization of materials, is certain that the 'Gardens' of the Biennale are a topical place in this regard. These gardens are the place of a nineteenth-century imperialist West that here built the scenario of a great international art exhibition, following the same principles of the Universal Exhibitions, the Great Circuses, the Olympics. A preview of the unmissable Venetian scenario.
About the pavilion
The site of the Korean Pavilion is on the top of an existing artificial hillock full of trees, between the Japanese and German pavilions. Its elevation is approximately 4.5 meters above the Giardini embankment, and it offers a splendid view over St. Mark's Basin. The site is occupied by a brick building that was constructed in the 1930s; it has a square floor plan, approximately six meters on a side, angled at approximately 45 degrees with respect to the pavilions around it. At the outset we decided to keep the brick building, which was in a somewhat rundown state. I discovered many fruitful characterstics of this very unknown and unusual place (in spite of the limitations imposed by the municipality, such as the obligation of respecting the existing trees, saving the slopes and having a building resting on supports, rather than on foundations).
The Korean Pavilion, Seok Chui Kim with Franco Mancuso
About content "History Failed Us, but No Matter"
Fragile but more enduring tales embedded within buildings can survive long past the end of physical lifespan of buildings themselves. These stories are planted by the author, or the architect, during the process of construction, and the architect’s intention initially guides the path of the narrative. If the origin of the narrative is linked to a dialogue that started on the site long before the formation of the building, the narrative acquires a broader meaning that transcends its immediate time and space. Instead of an aesthetic or technical agenda, an architect who works with matters of memory studies the non-material, cultural context of a building, and manages, through patient editing and revision of the inherited narrative, to re-establish a sense of continuity between the past and the present. The point of departure for the architecture of memory is not site analysis or precedent research. The seeds of history that can grow into an enduring cultural dialogue among various participants can only be found within unsubstantial ruins, within the walls saturated with persistent collective memory.
