A few minutes’ walk from the entrance of Gwangmyeong Cave in Gyeonggi Province stands the Gwangmyeong Upcycle Art Center, which opened in June.



The Korea Herald got a look around the center’s two buildings -- one for exhibitions and one for hands-on classes and seminars -- with Suzy Kang, the executive director of Gwangmyeong City’s Cultural Regeneration Project Team, which oversees the center’s operations.



“This is the first physical space in Korea devoted to the idea of upcycling,” Kang said.





Suzy Kang (Won Ho-jung/The Korea Herald)



Designed by Belgian architect Laurent Pereira, the center was approved as part of the Culture Ministry’s project to use abandoned industrial centers as cultural spaces. The city of Gwangmyeong’s idea was to remodel the PR building of an old garbage incineration center into a place devoted, appropriately, to art created with objects that have been thrown away.



The exhibition building is airy, with big glass walls, a predominantly red-and-gray color scheme, and a ceiling that opens up to the second floor.



“We thought a lot about the content that would be housed here, and how the building design would reflect that. There was a long study conducted before construction began.”



So what is the content? Kang acknowledged that the concept of upcycled art is not yet commonly known.



“Upcycled art isn’t an actual genre of art,” said Kang. “You can say that its roots were in junk art, which used junk to criticize the inaccessibility of art.”



“But I don’t think of junk art as upcycling. Junk art focuses on creating a particular shape out of particular materials, for example making an animal shape out of old tires, or making a bicycle shape out of plastic bottles. For me, upcycled art is more layered. There’s a message that the artist is trying to convey through a piece, which happens to be made from objects that have been thrown away.”





Pieces on display at the Gwangmyeong Upcycle Art Center (Won Ho-jung/The Korea Herald)