<Harmony between technology and Art_Architect Jong Soung Kimm> is the first
architecture exhibition of the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art's
Contemporary Artist series. We would like to explore the works of Jong Soung
Kimm, a pioneering architect of the modern Korean architecture, and to pave the
paths to see how Korean architecture has been changed in the modern and the
contemporary period. Also, it would be worthwhile scoping out his contribution
to the early stage of modernisation of Korean architecture, as the only Korean
student and colleague of Mies van der Rohe, who is one of the greatest
architects in the world. Especially, his works, based on logical thinking and
stick to the basics such as drawing, materials, proportion and structure, could
be meaningful for the people in the field of architecture even in the changed
environment of 21st century.
The exhibition consists of two parts: the first part explores Jong Soung Kimm's
works when he was establishing his own point of view on architecture, working
in the Mies van der Rohe's office after graduating from Illinois Institute of
Technology and teaching at the same university afterwards. The second part
showcases his works more closely through some of his representative projects in
different functions, for example, the Seoul Hilton Hotel, the SK Corporation
New Headquarters Building in Seorin-dong, Art Sunjae Museum in Gyeongju
(currently Wooyang Art Museum) and so forth, which he worked as a leader of
Seoul Architecture after returning back to Korea in 1978. The audiences are
expected to feel familiar with the architect, seeing a number of well-known
projects he led.
'Jong Soung Kimm is an unusual architect who has maintained his
architectural world
consistently since returning back from the United States in
1978.
The theme he has stacked to for a long time is a search on
technology and universal space.
These two are the keywords that characterise
his architecture...
He built up architectural concepts grounded on constructional
logic of Technology and gradually explored spatial imagination based on it. An
exact evaluation on his architectural works is significant as it can straighten
out the tendency of Korean modern architecture, which has been distorted due to
too much emphasis on locality, and it enables us to better anticipate the
prospect for Korean modern architecture...'
In Ha Jung (Professor of Architecture,
Hanyang University, Seoul), “Jong Soung Kimm Architectural Theory: Tectonic
Logic and Spatial Imagination”
