SPACE-[BRIEF INTERVIEW] Gunsan, Books, Cities: It’s an Art Bookstore and Sometimes an Exhibition Space

SPACE September 2025 (No. 694)

©Bang Yukyung

A view of Project Re\Turning Gunsan from the GRAPHIC SHOP, ©Bang Yukyung

Kim Kwangchul principal, Gunsan Book Center × Bang Yukyung

Bang Yukyung (Bang): You are a seasoned publisher who has produced numerous magazines and books in Seoul. What led you to settle in Gunsan?

Kim Kwangchul (Kim): After decades in Seoul, always surrounded by people I knew well, I began to feel as if I was stuck on a hamster wheel. As a reaction, I developed a strong desire to leave Seoul and to make a fresh start in a place that was unfamiliar to me. I looked around several cities such as Sokcho and Gangneung, but on my second visit to Gunsan I ended up signing a rental lease almost as if I were possessed. I believe in the inevitability of impulse! (laugh) I thought that, as in most provincial cities, the cultural environment here would be lacking, and that there would be something meaningful I could do.

Bang: GRAPHIC SHOP faces Project Re\Turning Gunsan. How did your relationship with Song Sungjin come about?

Kim: In a place like this, if you are trying to do anything cultural, you inevitably meet him—it’s a small community. After moving to Gunsan, I was a little anxious because I hadn’t yet established a base for my activities. At that time, Song introduced me to this store. The renovation design and construction of this 1930s commercial house – still partly showing traces of a Japanese colonial-era house – were completely handled by Son Jean and Jung Yumi of Project Re\Turning Gunsan. On the first floor, part of the original form was preserved, but the interior walls had been removed to create an open space visible from the outside. Since the surrounding area feels like a dining alley, I thought it was a suitable location.

Exterior view of GRAPHIC SHOP, Image courtesy of GRAPHIC SHOP

The second floor of GRAPHIC SHOP, ©Bang Yukyung

Bang: I’ve heard that GRAPHIC SHOP functions both as an office for propaganda and as an art bookstore. How do you run it?
Kim: It’s basically the project space for propaganda. It serves as the publishing office, an art bookstore, and sometimes also as an exhibition space. When I came to Gunsan, I made myself a promise: not to make more money than what was needed to run the publishing house. I had seen too often how cultural practice and making money came into conflict. But maybe I shouldn’t have made that promise—because now the publishing house itself feels close to collapsing. (laugh)

Bang: Last year, the Gunsan Book Fair you planned garnered considerable attention.

Kim: One of the projects I was able to propose and carry out in Gunsan was a book fair. There was a process of building consensus with several bookstore owners and local cultural figures. It’s not something one person can do alone, and it requires a lot of money. For about a year I went around saying, ‘It can be done.’ Then, when CONNECT GUNSAN, the private operator of the Center for Social Connectivity of Gunsan located in the Gunsan Community Hall (now GCC), promised financial support, the idea suddenly became a reality.

The Gunsan Book Fair positions itself between an art book fair and a general book fair, focusing on what book fairs in Korea have rarely attempted, or have had no intention of attempting. It emphasises exhibitions, talks, workshops, and archival workshops, serving as a stage upon which to realise the cultural potential of publishing.

Exhibition view of the 2024 Gunsan Book Fair, Image courtesy of Gunsan Book Fair

The 2024 Gunsan Book Fair at GCC, Image courtesy of Gunsan Book Fair

Bang: Last year’s programme included ‘Bags are Beautiful!—Tote Bags from Bookstores of the World’ and ‘READING ROOM—Independent Publishing Archive Since 2000’, which drew a lot of attention. What do you have planned for this year?
Kim: I think the Gunsan Book Fair may be the book fair in Korea most interested in challenging the concept of ‘the book fair’ itself. This year we will hold an exhibition called ‘Art Book Fair Now’, which asks again what role book fairs should ultimately play. During the six months we spent preparing for this exhibition, communicating with more than 30 art book fairs around the world, we learned an enormous amount ourselves. In that sense, it is a self-reflective exhibition. From the perspective of what a book fair should do, we believe it must serve as a true archival centre. That was the background to last year’s exhibition, ‘READING ROOM—Independent Publishing Archive Since 2000’, and this time, under the title ‘Made in ShinShin & Shin’, we will catalogue the lifelong work of designers ShinShin (Shin Haeok, Shin Donghyeok) and Shin Dokho. We are also planning ‘Riso is Beautiful’, which will be both a kind of media study and a workshop. The Gunsan Book Center, which operates the Gunsan Book Fair, is a coalition of small bookstores scattered across Gunsan. Whatever the source of the idea, the fair could not have taken place without this continued organisation. I think we must not forget the fact that it is neither a government office nor an individual, but a grassroots collective that is leading the book fair.

You can see more information on the SPACE No. September (2025).