What is a Brooch?

The following text is based on an essay of the same title in "100 Brooches. Korean Contemporary Jewellery Chronicle", edited by Dongchun Lee and published in August 2020 under the patronage of the Seoul Metropolitan Government and the Seoul Foundation for Arts and Culture". The book is not only an extraordinary history of contemporary Korean jewellery, depicted through the brooch form, but also an effort at understanding what a brooch is and does.