Korea Now! the new exhibition at Paris' Museum of Decorative Arts

By

Chenu Alexis

Published
Sep 21, 2015

The year of South Korea in France is underway. The most significant among the events planned over the coming months is the exhibition that opened this weekend at the Mmusee des Arts Decoratifs. The Korea now! Craft, Design, Fashion and Graphic Design in Korea exhibition occupies the whole of the institution's temporary exhibition spaces. 

The exhibition puts a special focus on contemporary Korean fashion, displaying more than 120 designs and accessories, from the first emerging designers of the early 1980s to those who made their name in the following decade, such as Jin Téok, André Kim, Lee Yong Hee and Sul Yoon-Hyung.

Another high point is that of the years since the start of the 2000s, marking the arrival of a new generation, including Juun J., a regular at the Paris men’s fashion weeks, whose work combines references to Western fashion with traditional folk outfits, as well as designers with a more urban inspiration such as Steve J and Yoni P, Kaal E.Suktae and Kwak Hyun Joo, whose works contain allusions to 1950s America and punk, Hip Hop or K Pop citations. 

The exhibition's Creative Director, Fashion Designer Yung Hee Suh, envisaged a non-chronological exhibition structure, hinging on the 5 cardinal colours of Obangsaek, Korea's traditional colour spectrum: red, yellow, black, blue and white, each of them evoking the work of a particular designer, by underlining the designer's dominant expressive note.

In addition to the fashion element, the Korea Now! exhibition also shines a spotlight on the output and dynamism of Korean designers and craftsmen (working with jewellery, paper, metal, leather, ceramics...). A third section will be dedicated to graphics, through the work of twenty or so contemporary artists and over 200 creations, silk-screen prints, books, magazines...