“Jung Youngsun: For All That Breathes On Earth” Installation view ©MMCA
The exhibition design for landscape architect Jung Youngsun’s solo exhibition "Jung Youngsun: For All That Breathes On Earth," currently on view at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MMCA), Seoul, has been awarded "Best of the Best" in the Brands & Communication category of the Red Dot Design Award 2024 in Germany.
The Red Dot Design Award, together with the IF in Germany and IDEA in the United States, is the world's most prestigious international design competition and has been running since 1955, celebrating its 70th anniversary this year. Each year, the Red Dot Design Award attracts an average of more than 4,000 entries from 50 countries, including designers and companies from all over the world, and is rigorously judged by more than 20 global design experts to select the winners and honor the selected designs.
The ‘Best of the Best’ in the Brands & Communication category, which the MMCA won, is the most prestigious award given to the best work in terms of design originality, idea innovation, and emotional connection, and is only awarded to the top 1% of all entries. In particular, this award is significant because it is the first of its kind for an art gallery or museum in Korea.
“Jung Youngsun: For All That Breathes On Earth” Installation view ©MMCA
The exhibition "Jung Youngsun: For All That Breathes On Earth", which traces the life and work of Jung Youngsun (1941-), Korea’s first-generation landscape architect and the first female land development engineer, was conceived as a new exhibition method that departs from the usual archival format to reach out to visitors unfamiliar with the field of landscape architecture.
In order to present landscaping, a 'time art' whose beauty changes over time, in a static white cube exhibition, MMCA used not only a horizontal arrangement of works but also a vertical arrangement that utilized the height of the space and the viewer's eye level.
The main scenes of the project, which contain the values of landscape architect Jung Youngsun, are placed at the most comfortable eye level of the viewer, while archival materials that reveal the traces of the landscape architect's fierce struggle and the history of the land are placed in the floor display cases, transforming the act of viewing into an experience of walking through a garden and examining the landscape.
Finally, to capture the temporality of the landscape, panoramic images were projected on the upper slopes of the room, allowing visitors to feel the passage of the seasons and changes in the landscape.
The Red Dot Design Award 2024 ceremony will take place on November 1 in Berlin, Germany, and the ‘Grand-Prix,’ the crowning glory of the awards, will be announced on the day of the ceremony. "Jung Youngsun: For All That Breathes On Earth” is on view at the MMCA Seoul until September 22, 2024.
