SIBF 2025 18-22 June, 2025 l COEX Halls A & B1
Archive
Theme Exhibition <반걸음 One Small Step>
반걸음 One Small Step
Sometimes, the world seems to be standing utterly, brutally still.
The same urgent calls to live together are repeated each year; the news only brings us déjà vu.
It feels as though all the absurdities of society and problems of the Earth are firmly entrenched, without solution or improvement.
But if we look on things from a longer time frame, we see that the world moves very slowly, a little at a time,
and that what has made each movement possible is one small step taken by someone.
For every change, there is that original first step,
be it a short small step backward to change the workings of the world that have driven us forward to date,
or a small bold step in the direction we think is right, even if we don’t know what lies beyond.
And after that initial first step, there are other steps, as our influence spreads to other people.
It is in this way—with one small step leading to another—that the world finally moves forward.
This is a place for reflecting and exploring those first small steps.
Here, you can encounter books in which authors reflect on what sorts of small steps the world needs today,
and hear the stories of groups in different fields that took small steps in different ways.
Within, you may find hints about the direction of the changes we all should be making together.
After you visit, we hope you will take your own small steps in your day-to-day life.
Perhaps your small steps will be the start of some tremendous change.
- Book curation: Jo Seong Eun (layersLAB, Loft Books)
- Brand reviews: Song Jung Won
- Spatial and graphic design: Studio PESI
- Eco-friendly structures: PAPER POP
- A staggering small step
- A small step toward “me”
- A Small step to a better society
- A Small step shared equally
- A Small step toward coexistence
The Road of Small Steps: No Turning Back
There is a road here: the "Road of Small Steps."
Made with nature-friendly paper, the Road of Small Steps has 10 distance markers along it.
Each marker shares with you a story about what direction the world should be taking.
After passing through this road, you will find yourself taking your own small step.
Who knows what adjective will be placed before that step?
One thing is clear: you can never go back to being the same person you were before walking this road.
For within you, it will mark a small but certain starting point for change.
A total of 10 groups are taking part in the Road of Small Steps, ranging from distribution, food, fashion, cosmetics, media, and energy brands to
groups working on environmental projects. While they all work in different fields and in different ways, they have one thing in common:
they have taken that bold first step beyond the preconceptions and skepticism of the world.
These groups ask us to make some small changes to the way we have been living our lives.
They ask us to question the things we have taken for granted when we eat, consume, wear clothes, and do things in general.
They share the same message—that the world can move forward when steps of everyday practice come together, no matter how small.
As you encounter books that share writers’ reflections and wisdom about a sustainable tomorrow and the direction the world should be traveling, you
will learn from those 10 groups how those ideas can be developed, put into practice, and made part of our day-to-day lives.
Take a leisurely stroll along the Road of Small Steps.
There, you will find hints at the direction our world should be taking.
Once you reach the end, you will hopefully start to take your own meaningful small steps.
Green Occupy
Occupying everyday life with greenness
As we go about our lives, we purchase things, and carbon emissions are an inevitable by-product of that process. We can’t simply stop consuming—it is thanks to daily essentials that we can sustain our lives. What we need right now is to reflect on better consumption, and to take a small step in turning that reflection into action. Green Occupy is a project group bringing together people sharing concerns about the environment. Through their Traveling Small Store, they present a new approach to consumption, where we purchase only what we need, buying it directly and without packaging. To contribute to reducing regional and age-based disparities in zero waste culture, the members also travel in vans to go where they are needed. Their firm small steps will continue until values of coexistence and sustainability "occupy" everyone’s lives.
@greenoccupy
Newneek
Taking a small step back to take in a larger world
Provocative titles, stories stripped of context, perspectives inured to the suffering of others. Amid our current flood of information, we live in an era where information distrust and fatigue are at their zenith. Newneek is a knowledge and information platform that raises questions about this phenomenon, while connecting people with the world as it conveys interesting stories from around the globe each day in entertaining and accessible ways. The platform is working to help more people look at the world beyond their own life and discover the hidden sides of phenomena, and to encourage them to live a more connected life beyond their own experience. For that reason, its members continue taking small steps back. As Newneek takes small steps to draw our attention to the stories that go unheard—helping us to see the world in back that we might miss if we are standing right in front of it—it falls on us to answer its efforts with our own solidarity.
@newneek.official
Wear Again Campaign
Trying on the value of
With our high streets crowded with fashion stores and new examples of "fast fashion" emerging every day, people are buying more clothes in shorter and shorter cycles. Where do all those clothes go? All of a sudden, the fashion industry is posing a major threat to the global environment. While we are expressing ourselves in more stylish ways through fashion, the Earth itself has undergone changes. The Wear Again Campaign confronts this inconvenient truth and asks questions. And the answer that its members have hit upon is "recycling." Inspired by statistics showing that garments people purchase and never wear make up 21% of the average wardrobe, Wear Again embarked on a clothing swap project that finds new owners for that "dormant" 21%. We support this small step by people proposing a more fabulous approach to fashion than any of the major brands.
@wearagaincampaign
Ugly Us Market
Questioning the things we take for granted every day
As supermarkets have become part of our lives, we now take it for granted that cucumbers should be straight, apples should be round and regular, eggplants should be flawlessly smooth, and cabbages should be undamaged by nibbling insects. Ugly Us Market asks us to consider what lies beneath those things we take for granted. Is it the right choice—for producers, for consumers, and for the global environment—when produce is discarded and unsold simply because it is ugly? Ugly Us Market offers a subscription service that allows users to buy "ugly" but healthy farm products at better prices. It is an example of what happens when farming is viewed in terms of the producer’s precious efforts and the flows of nature, rather than solely in terms of the result. Today, more and more people are taking part in this ugly and invaluable small step that represents a win-win situation for producers and consumers, while taking a sustainable tomorrow for everyone into account.
@uglyus.market
Yolk
Small but great ideas
Africa has been wrestling with two issues, with little in the way of progress. One has to do with severe lifestyle disparities owing to high electricity prices, and the other has to do with one in five children not receiving an education—not because there are no schools, but because adults are putting them to work instead. Yolk has a bright idea for solving both problems in one step: the Solar Cow Project, which involves building solar power charging facilities in schools. Now parents have begun sending their children to school to earn free electricity. While the electricity is charging, the children attend classes at the school; when they get home, they use the light to study by at night. It’s an idea with huge potential in the longer term. Perhaps this is what keeps the world going: the commitment and small steps taken by Yolk in the hopes of moving the world in a better direction.
@yolkstation
Enomad
Changing the Earth’s destiny
Listening to music, reading books under a light stand, watching movies on our laptop, chatting with our friends—these are the small things that we love in our life, and all of them are powered by electricity. We consume electricity every moment of our life, and the world is changing to depend more and more on energy use. But what will become of that world if we keep relying on fossil fuels the way we do? Enomad suggests that after a lifetime of consuming energy, it’s time for us to become the producers. Its idea is that we attach greater importance and value to electricity produced in sustainable ways without harming the environment. Enomad’s portable hydro power generator may just be a small step next to the environmental problems we now face. But as more and more steps like that are made and become common wisdom for people all over the world, we can change the Earth’s destiny in more positive ways.
@hello.enomad
Wemeet
Not sacrificing anything
We eat three meals a day. This means we have three opportunities per day to make better choices—for ourselves, for other beings, and for the world. Wemeet is a meat-free brand that considers ways we can enjoy taking advantage of those three opportunities. Some people may question whether something like vegetarian fried chicken can change the world. But the people behind Wemeet are optimisms who never give up or give in to cynicism. They believe that small, individual acts of practice can turn into a major force. To ensure that upholding our convictions for the sake of the world and coexistence does not mean sacrificing the joy of eating, Wemeet uses diverse and different eating experiences to help lower the barriers to vegetarianism and promote sustainable vegetarian living. It’s a bold and cheerful small step by optimists who look forward to vegetarianism becoming a universal and enjoyable culture for everyone.
@eat_wemeet
Precious Plastic
Turning a global nuisance into a resource
The very first plastic ever produced by humankind is still on our planet today. Plastic takes roughly 450 years to degrade naturally; microplastics have been found in places as remote as the Alps and the Arctic, and bits of plastic are mixed in with the very air we breathe. Plastic production in on the rise, and we have been unable to stop using it. Even if there were a historic decision by humankind to no longer make plastic, we would still be left with the problem of what to do about all the vast quantities of plastic that have already been produced. Precious Plastic has come up with a fantastic answer to that question: changing our perspective and looking at plastic waste as a valuable resource instead. Precious Plastic shows a future where plastic is transformed from a global nuisance into useful items for our daily life, into beautiful works of art, and into sturdy architectural materials.
@plastic_mill
TOUN28
A bold step toward true beauty
"I know it’s bad for the environment, but where else can you put liquids?" "The ingredients in cosmetics are just too sensitive to changes." While the rest of the world talks about plastic containers as an unavoidable choice, some people are looking beyond that "inevitability." TOUN28 is a cosmetics brand that has taken a new small step not just for the industry but for everyone’s lives with its groundbreaking recyclable paper containers. Up until now, cosmetics have been an everyday item for health and external beauty—but now it’s time for them to be redefined in terms of making the world a healthier, more beautiful place. TOUN28 admits that cosmetics in paper containers may be a bit inconvenient for people used to plastic containers. But if it means saving the environment and animals, many people are sure to gladly take that small "inconvenient" step.
@toun28_official
119REO
How not to forget what should not be forgotten
It’s a news story we can never get used to hearing about—the deaths of firefighters on the job. With heavy hearts, we laud their spirit of self-sacrifice. But we are busy with our own life, and we soon forget about it—something that should never be forgotten. The members of 119REO have come up with a novel way of putting these firefighters’ stories out in the world so that they can be remembered. They assemble old firefighting gear and hoses to make an item that people use every day: handbags. In this way, they give new life to uniforms that were with those firefighters in those most intense moments. It’s the best way to help us remember. The proceeds from selling these items that people wear, use, and own every day go toward improving treatment of firefighters. It’s easy for us to talk about firefighters as heroes, but we sometimes forget that even heroes need us to inspire them in their bravery. To that world, 119REO sends the message that we should be making a world where we all rescue each other.
@119reo
