Last Friday, Urban Regeneration students took part in the opening of COMMUNITY will not be DESIGNed exhibition that is currently on show in the Project Space Mium in Seoul.

지난 금요일, 도시재생 학생들은 현재 서울의 Project Space Mium 에서 전시되고 있는 COMMUNITY will not be DESIGNed 전시 오프닝에 참여했습니다.

The curator Alban Mannisi has brought together inspiring cases of community design from around the world that question the very possibility of designing communities and try to rethink the idea of community design. The exhibition opening tried but not fully succeeded to discuss diversity of contexts, approaches and results of exhibited cases.

The discussion, nevertheless, showed that community design may not be only about a participatory process of engaging communities in identifying and addressing problems in their living environment. If community design is to address these problems effectively, it should also make tangible the unequal social relations that underpin environmental and social conflicts, constraining the everyday life in communities.

Korean artist Park Chan-kook closed the discussion with the ‘Lost-Post’ performance that felt somewhat out of place at the first sight. Yet, his performance made visible the devastating consequences of unequal social relations in Korea on a Jeolla-do community which has been destroyed after crossing paths with what he portrayed as ‘development soldiers.’

The performance perhaps suggested a way to rethink how COMMUNITY will (not) be DESIGNed.