Kiaf & Frieze Seoul 2024 – Through the Lens of Luxury Artification
The Lee Bae promotional video for the Kiaf & Frieze Seoul 2024 art fair showcased on the COEX 3D-Billboard from Samsung
This year’s Seoul Art Week felt like a city-wide festival and I have to say I loved every moment of it. I’ve spent one whole day at the COEX Convention & Exhibition Center marveling at what Kiaf and Frieze 2024 had in store for us (and it was still not enough). There were also Frieze Live events, gallery openings, and artist talks organized by cultural institutions, and numerous brand events focusing on collaborations with Korean artists. It was honestly difficult to decide where to go and what to see (which is another reason to applaud GUCCI Korea for strategically hosting the GUCCI Culture Month in late October, once most of the events related to the September Seoul Art Week were closed).
There are many things that have been and could be said about the Seoul Art Week and the Korean art market in general – and I will soon be sharing the 2024 report prepared by the Korea Art Market team, which I’ve joined this summer. What I wanted to focus on today are the art fairs and the different types of collaborations between artists and luxury brands that took place this year.
PRODUCT-BASED COLLABORATIONS
20th BMW Art Car by Julie Meheretu
BMW Art Car by Julie Meheretu exhibited at Frieze Seoul 2024
illy Art Collection by Lee Ufan
illy Art Collection by Lee Ufan showcased at Frieze Seoul 2024
This is more of a traditional format that we’re quite used to by now but it can still be fun. I think BMW’s approach was especially impactful because a sports car makes for a very exciting canvas, as you will see in the picture. Additionally, the brand made sure to create a space that feels separate from the fair by painting the booth black, which also helped enhance the colors by creating a strong contrast. illy, on the other hand, prepared a coffee stand where it was also displaying its collaboration with Lee Ufan – I wish they had displayed the artists work as well and played with the format a bit more, because having this bluechip artist in their portfolio is no small feat!
IMMERSIVE ART SPACE EXPERIENCES
Jo Malone x Lee Kwangho
Jo Malone x Lee Kwangho at Frieze Seoul 2024
Lee Kwangho is a young artist that has built an impressive portfolio of art collaborations over the past few years – his furniture can be found at the DIOR Seongsu concept store and he also collaborated with Porshe for their Capsule Dreamscapes #01 Seoul event that coincided with the Seoul Art Week. It could have easily beecome repetitve but I think Jo Malone gave enormous creative freedom to the artist which really worked in this setting. Lee Kwangho created a complete, immersive space with his artistic vision – incorporating both his woven furniture and the sculptural works, a reinterpretation of his existing series that was a response to the memories evoked by two scents. The scents were discretely placed on the walls for the audience to try and the setting really amplified the experience to become multi-sensory.
EXHIBITIONS & ADJACENT EXPERIENCES
Ruinart x Tomoko Sauvage's sensorial installation, part of Ruinart’s Conversations with Nature series
Ruinart x Tomoko Sauvage at Frieze Seoul 2024
The Frieze audience enjoying the Ruinart champagne next to the exhibit
Chaumet x Heechan Kim
Chaumet x Heechan Kim at Frieze Seoul 2024
Video featured at the Chaumet x Heechan Kim at Frieze Seoul 2024 booth
Chaumet x Heechan Kim at Frieze Seoul 2024 – view of the booth
Chaumet x Heechan Kim at Frieze Seoul 2024 – close-up
Breguet x Noémie Goudal’s Post Atlantica exhibition curated by Jenn Ellis
Breguet x Noémie Goudal at Frieze Seoul 2024 | Courtesy of Breguet
Breguet x Noémie Goudal at Frieze Seoul 2024
A view of the Breguet booth at Frieze Seoul 2024
Exhibiting artists’ works in the brand space is both a very traditional and tricky format – it’s really about being able to find balance between brand exposure and focusing on the artist. I think in the context of the art fair, the artist should dominate the space unless there is a great synergy between the two – and so it’s really about being able to collaborate with the right artist that uses a similar language to your brand – be it via their medium of choice or topic, and focusing on that. I think Ruinart did it best, because it created a dedicated space for the artist while leaning into the social aspect of their product to create a lounge for visitors.
ART TECHNOLOGY
LG OLED ART – Suh Se Ok X LG OLED: Reimagined by Suh Do Ho, Shaped by Suh Eul Ho exhibition
LG OLED transparent screens showcasing the Suh Se Ok X LG OLED: Reimagined by Suh Do Ho, Shaped by Suh Eul Ho project
Interview with the artist Suh Se Ok played on the LG OLED screens at LG OLED’s Frieze Seoul 2024 booth
Probably the most impactful collaboration of the whole art fair was done by LG OLED. The company partnered up with artist Suh Do Ho and his brother, architect Suh Eul Ho to pay tribute to their late father, the great artist Suh Se Ok. The booth showcased Suh Se Ok’s original artwork and how it was reinterpreted (or reimagined, as the title of the exhibition phrases it) by the two sons into video art, with morphing forms. Both LG and Samsung have been working to elevate their brand image and while I’m a big fan of Samsung’s approach – leveraging traditional Korean culture – I found that LG really understood the assignment, as the youth says. Using the unique feature of LG OLED’s transparent screens to build a direct connection to art by adding another method of expression for the medium definitely strengthened the brand’s relationship to art. As stated by J.N. Kapferer, the biggest academic authority on the topic of art and luxury, “the desired outcome of artification is an elevated status of the brand, its founder and products to affirm that the brand is exceptional and that its price and symbolic power are undisputed” – to me, LG managed to achieve just that.
