Born in Seoul, Hwan Kim read while attending the Theater Arts Department at the Korea National University of Arts and graduated from Berlin National University of the Arts with senior BA and MA in stage costumes. Invited as a guest artist for the 2015 Polkenloda summer concert at Christus-Pavillion in Turingen, he worked on stage and costumes for Messianne’s “Quartet for the End of Time” and Stravinsky’s “Firebird,” while “Firebird,” in collaboration with the Berlin National Ballet School with choreographer Gregor Zeifert, was re-performed at Radial System V in Berlin. He debut in Taiwan as a stage costume designer through Puccini’s “Il Tritico (2017)” at the National Theater of Taiwan with director James Robinson and conductor Xiaochia Lu, and participated in the costume work for the “B.Z.-Culture Awards 2017” held at the Schiller Theater in Berlin in the same year. He also worked as a co-stage costume designer on stages and costumes for Purcell’s “Dido and Eneas (2015-2016),” which opened with the direction and conduct of Thomas Hengelbroch at the Salzburg Festival, the Hamburg International Music Festival, and the Wiesbaden Hessen State Theater; and participated in costumes for Stokhausen’s “Light (2015)” by conductor Ilan Volkov and modern music ensemble Mujikfavrik at the Berlin Festival Grand Theater; and for Andriesen’s “Letters to Vermeer (2018),” which had its German premiere at the Heidelberg Theater. He has also participated in Shakespeare’s Richard III (2015), which was premiered at the Schauvane in Berlin by Thomas Ostermeier, and Martinu’s Three Wishes (2014), produced by Frank Hilbrich at the Berlin University of the Arts. In 2018, he also participated as a costume designer for the topical work “La Bohème” posted at the Daejeon Arts Center.
Living in Berlin, he has given special lectures on stage costumes at the Berlin University of the Arts, Ewha Womans University, Sungshin Women’s University, and Kyung Hee University, and served as the stage costume for a special performance marking the 200th anniversary of the premiere of “Der Freischütz,” an opera by Carl Maria von Weber at the Berlin Concerthouse. The performance attracted more attention as Christoph Eschenbach, a world-renowned master and executive conductor of the Berlin Concerthouse Orchestra, the theater’s resident orchestra, took charge of the performance, and it was even more meaningful because it was also a performance to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the opening of the Berlin Concerthouse, which hosted the performance. The production and production of this performance were conducted by Carlos Padrissa, who also has ties to Korea, and La Fura dels Baus, who led him.