Hyundai Blue Prize Design 2022 Awardee Park Jimin. 

· Hyundai Blue Prize Design 2022 serves as a creative platform that fosters a new generation of design curators and gives recognition to their exceptional talents.

· The award program expanded participation in its second year by including international curators for a more global perspective.

· A furniture designer, Park Jimin named Awardee of  Hyundai Blue Prize Design 2022, themed “Shelter Next.”

· Awardee’s works to be showcased in a design exhibition at Hyundai Motorstudio Busan. 

Hyundai Motor Company announced Park Jimin as the Awardee of Hyundai Blue Prize Design 2022 themed “Shelter Next.” The theme is the reimagination of the concept of a space for relaxation and escape from mental fatigue and dearth of communication in the era of environmental issues and a global pandemic.

Launched in 2021, Hyundai Blue Prize Design is a global award program developed by Hyundai Motor under its vision of “Progress for Humanity” to foster a new generation of creative curators. The award aims to communicate with the public to increaseawareness of design curation and to make a real contribution to the field of design by offering new opportunities to promising young curators. Every year, adifferent theme reflecting major contemporary issues is chosen and works submitted are evaluated by a panel of adjudicators. The winning exhibition engages the audience to contemplate on contemporary issues and serves as a platform for open discussion.

This year, the works submitted by all applicants were evaluated by a panel of juries which included Kyungsun Kymn, Professor of visual communication design at Seoul National University; Bora Hong, Founder of art project community at Factory2; Aric Chen, General and Artistic Director of Het Nieuwe Institute and Jochen Eisenbrand, Chief Curator of the Vitra Design Museum.

Park Jimin and her proposal titled Where Is My Friend’s Home was selected among five talented finalists from around the world who were shortlisted earlier this year. Participating artists were tasked with the challenge of visualizing relaxation in the new era and proposing their personal interpretation of what shelter means.

Park Jimin is a graduate student majoring in industrial design at Seoul National University of Science and Technology, and a furniture designer actively working in Seoul. The title Where Is My Friend’s Home not only means a place to stay, but also indicates that everything has the potential to be a shelter, encouraging people to find their own shelters.

Juries described that Park’s proposal displayed a deep understanding of the theme, “Shelter Next,” grounded on solid research and evaluated her interpretation of the the meand methods as innovative and fresh.

In addition to the cash prize worth KRW 15 million, the Awardee will also have the opportunity to participate in the Boisbuchet Workshop, a week-long program in Domaine de Boisbuchet in southwest France attended by the most inspiring architects and designers from around the world. Park’s work will also beshowcased in a curated design exhibition at the Hyundai Motorstudio Busan in 2023, succeeding the exhibit Do You Miss the Future by the Awardee of last year’s inaugural Hyundai Blue Prize Design.

“At Hyundai Motor Company, we believe design has the power to reinvent our everyday lives and ourvision of Progress for Humanity plays a small but meaningful role in raising important issues that spark contemplation and conversations,” said Sungwon Jee, Vice President and Head of Brand Experience Division at Hyundai Motor Company. “Hyundai Blue Prize Design is an opportunity for creative thinkers from all corners of the globe to present their views on a variety of themes reflecting contemporary issues that may have an even greater impact on future generations.”

Hyundai Blue Prize Art + Tech, the origin of Hyundai Blue Prize Design, has been held in Beijing since 2017 to inspire the next generation of art curators and provide them with a comprehensive understanding of the art and technology sphere. Every year, the Hyundai Blue Prize Art + Tech sponsors a mentoring program for up-comingart curators in China with the winning work exhibited at the Hyundai Motorstudio Beijing.