예페 우겔비그: 한국 패션의 스펙타클

Jeppe Ugelvig: The Spectacle of Korean Fashion: Aspiring for In-Depth Research

イェッペ・ウーゲルヴィグ：韓国ファッションというスペクタクル──より深いリサーチを目指して

Please introduce the <Fashion Exhibition> you organized in Korea in detail. The exhibition has two parts; please share us your idea of each part. And who do you think interesting Korean artists, and what message you wanted to convey?

My exhibition at MMCA Changdong responded to a paradoxical condition in Korea: on one end, an abundance of fashion consumption, and on the other, a lack of fashion exhibitions. As a result, fashion retail in particular are innovating new types of fashion display while museums remain focused almost exclusively on fine art. The exhibition tried to break open traditional forms of fashion display by including sculpture, video, and wall-based artworks that engage with clothing culture. We also worked with the brilliant stylist Yeyoung Kim to propose a new mode of mannequin display. As such, the exhibition tried to propose new ways of fashion curating and ask questions about fashion in Korea right now. 

What do you think is the characteristic or potential of fashion in Korea while experiencing Korea? And does that characteristic have the meaning in terms of art discourse?

Korea has the most aggressive fashion consumption in the world, characterized by extreme innovation, competition, and speed. This makes for very impressive spectacle, but also very shortsighted forms of production; and there is little space for history, research, and independent forms of fashion.

Meanwhile, the government is supporting the development of new art museums across the country – here, I see a great potential if fashion would be embraced by institutions. But there is still a big distance between art and fashion discourse, which is a division that begins in education. In a business sense, Korean designers have the great advantage of having access to local manufacturing, and I hope this will remain so. 

Do you think there is something Asian about fashion or something that only Asia has? Or were there different characteristics of each country you visited recently, such as China, Japan, and Korea?

Asia is a construction and imaginary, but one with a long history – so in that sense, there is a specificity to “Asia” even if it was constructed as the Other to the Western world. China, Japan, Korea are exactly as different from one another as any other country, but they do share an enormous amount of political, economic, and social history. In terms of fashion industries, I would say that Japan has a very different history as a much more “Western” fashion economy. But no doubt, the fashion industries of Korea and China are the future. 

Criticism of academic research and analysis of fashion has been continuously studied, and in recent years, this trend has also expanded to practice, so designers also want to work from this critical perspective. This critical fashion practice is sometimes too close to the realm of art or often beyond the fashion system, raising questions about its definition and role. What do you think of it? What do you think of the relationship between critical fashion and art? Do you think we should divide critical fashion practice and art? 

I believe in a specificity of fashion as a practice, and while it has a definite place within art’s institutions, it is structurally and fundamentally different. I do not personally believe in fashion as pure exhibition value; this, to me, would not be fashion. Having said that, I think fashion has a lot to learn from art and art history’s long self-analysis and critical advancement. For fashion to be critical it must be self-reflexive, be in discussion with itself, instead of just pursuing newness and revenue for whatever cost. 

Please introduce your journal <Viscose>. The background of planning the magazine and what kind of research you want to conduct through the magazine in the future.

<Viscose> was thought as a space for these kinds of discussions: analysis about fashion, mixing critical registers of art, design, and academic writing. Our focus lies on the written word, and we spend a lot of time commissioning writers from different countries to develop new research on unique topics. Since launching in 2020, our magazine has found a niche audience of students, professionals, and art people around the world, and in the coming years, we are now branching out by publishing special books. In 2023, we are publishing two new issues of the magazine as well: one on the history of transgender fashion production, and one on histories of retail and shop architecture.