Munich Creative Business Week 2015: Tools for A Break – Korean Crafts and Design at Galerie Rieder

As we’ve noted in these pages in the past, changing methods of working and communicating mean that we need new chair forms, specifically chairs which allow one to work with tablet computers and similar devices.

When we wrote letters we needed desks, and so chairs which allowed us to sit comfortably at the desk. When we worked with computers we needed larger desks, and so chairs which allowed us to sit comfortably at the desk. Now we work with tablets we need chairs which allow us to sit comfortably, without desks, but in new positions, for which we need new chair forms.

New chair forms can of course also mean old chair forms. Such as the traditional legless chairs popular in countries as Japan or Korea.

A thought which occurred to us when we saw the Line and Union collection by Park Jai Woo in the exhibition Tools for A Break – Korean Crafts and Design presented at Galerie Rieder during Munich Creative Business Week.

Curated by Berlin based Keum Art-Projects Tools for A Break – Korean Crafts and Design presents works by 16 Korean artists and designers across a range of genres and from the conceptual to the functional.

As ever we understand such showcases aren’t beauty contests, but among the highlights for us were the Kkini bowl and chopsticks set by Song Seung Yong, the Lunchbox by Park Ye Yeon, the unnamed yet utterly charming collection of stone like porcelain objects by Kim Sang Woo, and of course the Line and Union collection which presents a very elegant and expertly crafted re-interpretation of traditional Korean furniture, including a very nice legless chair that is as contemporary as it is unquestionably rooted in history.

What particularly appealed to us about the showcase was the lack of urgency. Many of the exhibitions we attended during Munich Creative Business Week had a very-off putting aura of commerce; one regularly had the feeling you were in marketing presentation where you were being told how perfect, wonderful, exiting, new, innovative and completely necessary everything was.

Tools for A Break – Korean Crafts and Design doesn’t and didn’t. It simply presents the objects and leaves you in peace to find your own relationship with them. Or not. Which is of course how it should be.

And yes, we know we should now link those thoughts to the exhibition title and make a pun about “taking a break from the pressure sell”, but feel that would cheapen both exhibition and experience.

Munich Creative Business Week 2015 has ended, but Tools for A Break – Korean Crafts and Design can be viewed in Galerie Rieder, Maximilianstraße 22, 80539 Munich until Saturday March 7th.

Full details can be found online at www.keumprojects.com