Cheongju Craft Biennale art brings history to life

The 13th edition of the Cheongju Craft Biennale showcases crafts that bring history to life and emphasize the connection between humans and nature. Over 3,000 works are on display.

A visitor walks past "Love Song in the Forest" by Yoo Joung-hye at the 13th edition of the Cheongju Craft Biennale on Aug. 29. [YONHAP]

CHEONGJU, North Chungcheong — Biophilia, or the desire or tendency to closely connect with nature, essentially becomes a craft when it is fully manifested. Learning how each craft came to be is one part of understanding humankind's heritage and earthly origins.

That’s exactly what the 13th edition of the Cheongju Craft Biennale aims to spotlight.

“Crafts possess a remarkable ability to embody and bring history to life,” Kang Jae-young, artistic director of this year’s biennale, said on Aug. 31 during a press preview.

Hosted by the city of Cheongju in North Chungcheong, the biennale first started in 1999 and its latest edition is currently taking place at the cigarette factory-turned-cultural complex Cheongju Culture Factory, which is next to the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MMCA)’s Cheongju branch.

“It’s meaningful to see natural materials, after being subject to human labor, become works of art. That’s why crafts should no longer be confined to being a mere tool for humans.”

"Five-Part Black Twill Collection" by Tobias Mohl [CHEONGJU CRAFT BIENNALE]

In this edition, 80 percent of the 3,000 works on display are new. Preparing for the biennale itself was “craft-like,” Kang said, in that it was interesting to see craftspeople from all over the world visit Cheongju and install their works inside the exhibition halls.

Some, like Dutch designer Jurgen Bey, incorporated Cheongju-related themes into their works. In Bey’s latest “Tree Trunk Bench” piece, for which he repurposed a fallen tree to make a chair, he used a dead hackberry tree that lived its whole life in Cheongju.

Context is crucial to understanding each piece on view, in terms of material, technique and background.

"Untitled_I" by Lee Sang-hyeob, alongside a similar 31-kilogram (68-pound) silver ingot he used to make it [SHIN MIN-HEE]

Lee Sang-hyeob, a silversmith whose signature works are round jars forged with a hammer, with the hammer indentations left as they are, reverted to “preindustrial ways” to produce his latest pieces. Instead of taking the easy way out and getting help from present-day machinery, he acquired 31-kilogram (68-pound) silver ingots and hammered each, from start to finish, into the bowl-like silverware on display.

In contrast to his previous works, which usually take the form of moon jars or vases and have smaller brims, his latest works look more primitive as they depart from the perfectly round silhouettes and have a much larger brim.

"Infinity" by OMA Space [OMA SPACE]

OMA Space, an art and design studio in Seoul, presented “Infinity,” an installation comprised of spiky textile planet-like objects hooked up to a motor that rotate endlessly in a dark space filled with ambient sounds. Jang Jiu, the founder and director of OMA Space, likens it to the “infiniteness of time.”

Its meaning is reinforced by how each textile spike has been wrapped with string a “countless number of times,” Jang told the Korea JoongAng Daily.

“The way that each piece keeps rotating without stopping represents the supernatural motion that keeps our universe moving continuously, like time,” she said. “'Infinity’ is therefore a meditative object and allows the viewer to have a moment of introspection. The ambient sounds were added to awaken your auditory senses.”

"The Wishes" by Ko Hye-jeong, winner of this year's Cheongju International Craft Competition [SHIN MIN-HEE]

Ko Hye-jeong, an artist who specializes in metal, was the grand prize winner at the Cheongju International Craft Competition, a contest held alongside the biennale.

Her winning piece, “The Wishes,” is a wide vase made from clusters of over 3,000 dandelion feather-like silver-plated brass units. The shadow of the vase itself is worth noting, as the flowery texture is intricately reflected in the shade as well.

Ko had competed against 861 other craftspeople from 54 nations.

″Chinese Style Paper House″ by Hsin Hsin Joss Paper Culture [SHIN MIN-HEE]

Spain is the “guest of honor” for this edition. In every new edition of the biennale, one country is invited to exhibit its own crafts exclusively, in a separate section. France was highlighted last time in 2021.

All 150 works in the Spanish section, from 31 artists based in cities like Barcelona, Madrid, Valencia and Seville, attempt to capture the soul and tradition of Spain. Francisco Carrera’s gold embroidery on hand-knotted mesh is one example of portraying Catholic-themed imagery using Sevillian-style embroidery techniques.

The Spain exhibition was designed to resemble round plazas like those that can easily be found in Spanish villages, which function as community spaces where neighbors can socialize, according to curator Rubén Torres, who hopes that “the stories the Spanish crafts tell can speak to the hearts of the audience.”

Coinciding with the event is a show on Pablo Picasso’s ceramic works at the MMCA’s Cheongju branch, which is on the same estate as the biennale. Part of the collection of late Samsung Chairman Lee Kun-hee’s donated artworks from 2021, it sheds light on Picasso’s artistic range as a ceramist with some 100 colorful plates and jugs. The exhibit, free of charge, continues until Jan. 7 next year.

The Cheongju Craft Biennale ends Oct. 15. The Cheongju Culture Factory is open from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. A mobile docent program is available in English via QR code, which can be scanned on-site. For tickets and additional information, visit the English website.

BY SHIN MIN-HEE [shin.minhee@joongang.co.kr]