Sikgu

Hospitality

“Have you eaten?” or “Bap meogeosseo?” in Korea is both an everyday greeting and a quiet way of asking whether someone is well and cared for. As for the word Sikgu, it literally refers to people who share meals, yet it also evokes a form of family shaped by the repeated act of sitting at the same table rather than by blood ties or formal structures alone. Within this understanding, a meal is not simply food placed before another person; it carries time, attention and the wish to offer something good. Hospitality therefore begins before a guest arrives. For designers and artists, it takes shape through choosing materials, making objects, preparing a place and considering how another person might encounter the work, take a seat and feel welcome. What is shared may be a dish, a handmade object, a conversation or simply time spent together. Each can become a small gesture of care. Through such gestures, the project frames hospitality as an everyday practice of care. Sikgu begins with the table as a social and emotional structure, a place where strangers, friends, artists and visitors may briefly gather and experience a sense of belonging through acts of offering and receiving.