Cheongju Counts Down to Craft Biennale in September 

By Cathy Rose A. Garcia
Staff Reporter

The 6th Cheongju International Craft Biennale, touted as the world's largest, is counting down to its opening in September. The event may have been overshadowed by the more famous biennales in Gwangju or Busan in previous years, but organizers are hoping to create more buzz this year.

Director Dr. Lee Ihn-bum is promising to shake things up this time around.

``Over the past 10 years, Korea has been awash in a wave of numerous sorts of exhibition biennales, hosted by various municipalities in a race to compete for the national spotlight. Out of this chaotic confusion sprang a clear and urgent message that the definitions of the following words, `international,' `craft,' and `biennale' need to be re-examined. The message I would like to share with the visitors of the biennale is a hope for the Cheongju Biennale 2009 to serve as a model for future biennales to come,'' Lee said.

More than 158 artists from 25 countries are participating in the biennale, which runs from Sept. 23 to Nov. 1 at the Cheongju Arts Center and various locations around the city.

Unlike other events in Korea that mostly invite Korean artists, Lee wants to make the Cheongju biennale truly international by inviting more foreign artists.

The theme for this year's event is ``Outside the Box.'' It hopes to showcase works that re-establish connections between art, design, technology and the environment.

``To think `outside the box' is to transcend spurious divisions through the human faculty of imagination. In newly merged artistic and managerial discourses, `outside the box' is where innovation is to be found. But it is also where a state of integration becomes attainable, where meetings become possible. Craft is integration with nature, with others, with its collective self. It therefore has the power to unite and represent all human values,'' Lee said.

The biennale is divided into two main exhibitions, ``Pressing Matter'' and ``Dissolving Views,'' alongside community arts program ``The River Within Us, The Sea All Around Us.''

Curated by Elaine Kim, deputy director of the World Jewellery Museum, Seoul, ``Pressing Matter'' has gathered a stimulating array of craft works featuring different materials from all over the world.

``The purpose is to demonstrate the variety of elements that meet in the work: the diverse perspectives of producer and consumer; youth and maturity; the egalitarian and the elite; the classical and the romantic; the developed and the developing world,'' organizers said.

Among the foreign artists participating in ``Pressing Matter'' are David Trubridge, Piet Stockmans, the Campana Brothers, Hella Jongerius, Julia Lohmann and Liv Blavarp.

For ``Dissolving Views,'' curator Kim Ju-won will take viewers beyond the concept of art as an object and towards ``the idea of craft as a living human impulse.'' The craft works are incorporated in performance art, music, theater, dance, film, poetry and prose.

The community art project ``The River within Us, The Sea All Around Us,'' curated by Kim Hyun-joo, is even more important as the debate over public art intensifies in Cheongju. Various works will be incorporated in public spaces around the city.

This year's guest pavilion features Canada. Various cultural and indigenous artifacts and crafts selected by the Canadian Crafts Federation will be on display.

Other events, such as the International Craft Competition, International Craft Fair, symposiums and educational programs, are being held on the sidelines of the biennale.

Visit www.cheongjubiennale.or.kr or call (43) 277-2501.

cathy@koreatimes.co.kr
 

Outside the box

 

The theme for the 2009 Biennale, Outside the Box, proposes that craft be considered or approached as a composite whole, rather than as a series of fragmentary and contending disciplines. To think outside the box, as the phrase goes in the West, is to transcend spurious divisions through the human faculty of imagination. In newly-merged artistic and managerial discourses, 'Outside the box' is where the indispensably 'innovative' is to be found. But it is also where a state of integration becomes attainable; where meetings become possible. As what is devised as a necessary means to an end, craft and innovation have ever been one and the same. By the same definition craft is integration; with nature, with others, with its collective self. It therefore has the power to unite and represent all human values, in the here and now. It is one of the chief absurdities of our times that the world should be facing unprecedented environmental, economic and humanitarian crises and at the same time find itself inundated with products and consumables.The position in relation to crafts, and the fate of crafts, is one essential aspect of this paradox. Contemporary attitudes to material culture: the idea of the self as project the creation of the authentic individual the arbitrariness of meaning; these have proceeded from the beginnings of modern consumerism in the eighteenth century, and from the development of Romanticism as an intellectual and emotional response.¹ But to what vision of mankind does this proliferation of the inherently valueless testify in our information and technology age?

 

The category of ‘craft’ cannot be described in simple terms. Every process involved in its production can be assessed as a subject of inquiry, or as an object in itself. The Biennale reclaims in the colligation of ‘craft’ not only the products that are normally taken to define it, such as painting, sculpture, architecture, and design, but also music, dance, poetry, literature, theatre and film, and reinterprets these works collectively as the pursuits of homo faber, for whom they would not have been disjoined. Its particular aim is to encourage, display and explore artworks created in the desire for a universe in which those connections are re-established. The project requires, accordingly, that themes and subjects are open to individual worlds of experience, rather than experiences, and thereby to the binding framework of reference and meaning formed by a shared culture and consciousness; from cardinal themes and issues with which the instincts and ideals of the maker were once enmeshed - the expeditions of the mundane - to the primeval antecedent from which the greatest acts of creation have always derived. This is a search for meaning in a tortuous era. What of the late twentieth-century commodity-artifact, when the challenge to forge a new experiment in craft is made in the exhibition halls of the Biennale - and how will our delineation of homo faber compare with the emergence of his twenty-first century avatar?

 

¹ Dr. Ihnbum Lee｜Director, 2009 Cheongju International Craft Biennale

Cheongju International Craft Biennale 2009

 

The Cheongju Craft Biennale: Outside the Box is itself a tripartite event consisting of two exhibitions and a community project, as follows:

 

Pressing matter

23 September - 1 November 2009｜Pavilion 1

This exhibition urges us to consider the crafts not in egotistical isolation, but in vital and continuous connection with each other. Inevitably, modernist themes of substance, subject and meta-narratives will be resurrected, but the purpose is to demonstrate the variety of elements that meet in the work: the energy released from each object by another and diffused among the whole; the diverse perspectives of producer and consumer, youth and maturity, the egalitarian and the elite, the classical and the romantic, the developed and the developing world. Pressing matter is a stimulating array of works, materials and initiatives.

 

Dissolving views

23 September - 1 November 2009｜Pavilion 1

This exhibition takes us further beyond the concept of craft as contained in the object as product, or fetish, and towards the idea of craft as a living human impulse, seizing the day, something that has momentum. It includes an open space or performance and other time-based events. Traditionally static gallery pieces are stationed amidst and around works conceived in the world of the passing hours and days: the political, social and cultural, in the form of music, dance, theatre, film, poetry and prose. Dissolving views is neither about the object only, nor about motion only; it is about the meetings and interventions between both in which meaning is discovered and affirmed.

 

The river within us, the sea all around us

1 April - 1 November 2009

The title of this project is borrowed from the last of T.S. Eliot’s ‘Four Quartets,’ The Dry Salvages: ‘- for the river is man’s time, the microcosmic rhythm of life, but the sea is the earth’s time, the macrocosmic rhythm of eternity; both are frontiers.’² The river within us is not another exhibition as such but a conception for a community arts program. As host of the Biennale, the city of Cheongju seeks through this project to integrate artists with its community and to establish a common idea of its history; to embody the corporate tenancy of its culture and past. In this way modern crafts may begin their reinstatement in the lives of the people from which they have vanished. The project therefore takes place within those remembered and actual lives, and is acted out in various public spaces in the city, rather than as a work enshrined in the exhibition space.

 

² George Williamson, T.S. Eliot (London: Thames & Hudson, 1955) p. 223

 

Other events

 

The Sixth Cheongju International Craft Competition

23 September - 1 November 2009｜ Competition Pavilion

Works accepted to the Sixth Cheongju International Craft Competition are to be assessed both on the basis of their technical proficiency and craftsmanship and of their imaginative, aesthetic and other essential merits: coherence, intuition, integrity and authenticity.

 

Prizes

There will be 26 prizes to include a total of $110,000 in cash:

The First Prize of $30,000｜5 Merit Awards of $8,000｜5‘ Outside the box’Special Awards of $5,000

15 Craft Dream Awards of $1,000｜Certificates will also be awarded to approximately 150 runners-up.

The application form and full details are available and can be downloaded from the website: www.cheongjubiennale.or.kr.

 

The Second International Craft Fair

23 September - 1 November 2009｜ Fair Pavilion

Another major project will be the craft fair. The good craftwork finds its own place in the life of its owner; its beauty corresponds to its usefulness. This principle is central to our manifesto. Our International Craft Fair is open to technicians, studios and galleries from the world over, and will provide a practicable model for the global craft market; the meeting place of producer and consumer. The fair will take place in two sections: the first inside the pavilion, where works of high quality by internationally renowned artists and designers will be on offer, and the second in the grounds outside the pavilion in which artifacts from all over the world can be purchased at an attractive price.

 

Unity & Diversity - Guest Pavilion: Canada

23 September - 1 November 2009｜ Canadian Pavilion

The 2007 Biennale featured the Italian Pavilion by special invitation. In 2009 it will be the turn of the Canadians, who will honour our event with a plenitude of indigenous cultures represented in their display of Canadian artifacts by some two hundred artists and craftspeople. The items have been selected by the Canadian Crafts Federation, and the show curated by Dr. Sandra Alfoldy, editor of ‘Neo-Craft: Modernity and the Crafts.’ ‘Unity & Diversity’ is a vital contribution to the contemporary theme of representing cultures, and the fruits of interchange between art, nature and humanity.

 

International Symposium - theme: ‘Outside the box: a different perspective’

24 September 2009｜ Cheongju Early Printing Museum

The Biennale has invited 14 scholars who have presented significant writings and speeches related to fundamental issues in crafts in recent years. Referring closely to the main theme, the International Symposium will address and discuss the dominant concerns in the field of crafts at the beginning of the 21st century and set out a vision for the future of international arts and crafts.

 

Educational Programme

Education Pavilion

The main educational program runs in conjunction with performances, workshops and lectures, and includes a schedule of guides and tours for the main exhibition. Museum and Gallery education is lifelong, and visitors of all ages are welcome to participate.

Further information

 

Home Stay Program

Accommodation in family homes and artists’ workplaces, which include sleeping quarters and other facilities, will be available to visitors for the course of the Biennale at various locations in and around the city.

 

Artist in Residency Program

During the proceedings a number of studio facilities will be available for use by visiting artists.

 

For details regarding either of the above please contact:

The 2009 Cheongju International Craft Biennale

329 Heungdeok-ro, Heungdeok-gu, Cheongju-si, Chungcheongbuk-do, 361-828 ,Republic of Korea.

Tel＋82 43 277 2501-3, Fax ＋82 43 277 2610, http://www.cheongjubiennale.or.kr

Outside the box

The theme for the 2009 Biennale, Outside the Box, proposes that craft be considered or approached as a collective whole, rather than as a series of fragmentary and contending disciplines. To think outside the box, as the phrase goes in the West, is to transcend spurious divisions through the human faculty of imagination. 'Outside the box' is where the state of integration becomes attainable; where meetings become possible. The practice of craft is intrinsically the intercommunion between mankind and the immensity of nature. This is a substantializing principle in which all arts and crafts were once unified. What we term craft, as much as any art form, should in itself have the power to unite and represent all human values, in the here and now. It is one of the chief absurdities of our times that the world should be facing unprecedented environmental, economic and humanitarian crises and at the same time find itself inundated with products and consumables.The position in relation to crafts, and the fate of crafts, is one essential aspect of this paradox. Contemporary attitudes to material culture: the idea of the self as project the creation of the authentic individual the arbitrariness of meaning; these have proceeded from the beginnings of modern consumerism in the eighteenth century, and from the development of Romanticism as an intellectual and emotional response 1. But to what vision of mankind doesthis proliferation of the inherently valueless testify in our information and technology age?

  The category of 'craft" cannot be described in simple terms. Every process involved in its production can be assessed as a subject of inquiry, or as an object in itself. The Biennale reclaims in the colligation of 'craft" not only the products that are normally takento define it, such as painting, sculpture, architecture, and design, but also music, dance, poetry, literature, theatre and film, andreinterprets these works collectively as the pursuits of homo faber, for whom they would not have been disjoined. Its particular aim is to encourage, displayand explore artworks created in the desire for a universe in which those connections are re-established. The project requires, accordingly, that themes and subjects are open to individual worlds of experience, rather than experiences, and thereby to the binding framework of reference and meaning formed by a shared culture and consciousness from the cardinal themes and issues with which the instincts and ideals of the maker were once enmeshed-the expeditions of the mundane-to the primeval antecedent from which the greatest acts of creation have always derived. This is a search for meaning in a tortuous era. What of the late twentieth-centurycommodity-artifact, when the challenge to forge a new experiment in craft is made in the exhibition halls of the Biennale-and how will our delineation of homo faber compare with the emergence of his twenty-first century avatar?

Dr. Ihnbum Lee I Director, 2009 Cheongju International Craft Biennale

Unity is Diversity: Crafting a Canadian Narrative

Guest Country Pavilion-Canada

Curatorial Themes

 Water
 Land
 Contact
 Flora/Fauna
 Arrivals
 Myth/Metaphor
 Departures

 Total of 211 pieces in the exhibition

 

Bridget Catchpole, B.C. “Crosswords Series”

 

Chung-Im Kim, ON “Dawn





Lily Yung, ON “Honeycomb Black and Honeycomb Pink”

 

 

Sonia Beauchesne, QC “Ring”




 

Timothy Belliveau, AB “Beacon”

Click here to participate in home-stay program

Cheongju International Craft Biennale 2009 Homestay Program   September 23 - November 1, 2009 The Organizing Committee of the Cheongju International Craft Biennale

 

To all craftsmen who have been concentrating on their creative andartistic activities with zeitgeist and a new vision from around the world! Welcome to Cheongju,Republic of Korea, the city with a thousand-year tradition and history on crafts, education and culture.

 

The Cheongju International Craft Biennale 2009 will be held at the Cheongju Arts Center and around the downtown area from September 23 to November 1. Under the theme 'Outside the Box’, it has a goal of searching and expanding new artistic values through the harmony of two heterogeneous worlds such as craft-nature, craft-diverse lives, tradition-modernity, craft-other art genres, subordinate genres, the 1st-the 3rd world, and other crafts around Cheongju and across the nation.

 

We, the Organizing Committee of the Cheongju International Craft Biennale, decided on a home-stay program. Under this program, tourists can enjoy the biennale while staying in an artist's studio or in a regular citizen's home.

 

The biennale home-stay program consists of staying in 1) an artist's studio for creative exchange and communication and 2) a regular citizen's home where you can experience Korean family culture.

 

If you are willing to participate in this home-stay program, visit our website (http://www.okcj.org). Fill out the application for submission. If you have any questions, contact us at yoohk2@hanmail.net (ENG) and junjoonbae@yahoo.co.jp (JPN).

 

I hope the home-stay program would help tourists gain better understanding of Cheongju, promote communication through cultural exchange, and give happiness to people from around the world.

 

 

Nam Sang-woo

The Chair of the Organizing Committee of the Cheongju International Craft Biennale

 

  OUTSIDE THE BOX

‣Overview of Cheongju International Craft Biennale 2009 - Theme: OUTSIDE THE BOX   - Date: Sep. 23 - Nov. 1, 2009 (40 days)   - Venue: Cheongju Arts Center and around the downtown - Program: * Main exhibition: 1) ‘Pressing Matter' 2) 'Continuous Prose' 3) ‘The River Within Us, the Sea All Around Us' * Related Events: International Craft Competition, Special Invited Exhibition (Canada), Fair, Academic Seminar, Craft Experience Program and Workshop, Culture & Art Event, etc. * Others: Youth Craft Forum, Special Exhibition by Korean Craft Museum, Biennale Homestay Program, Artist Residency Program, Development of Craft Archive, Citizen Participation Program, etc.   - Organized by: Cheongju-si (City) (Promoted by the Organizing Committee of the Cheongju International Craft Biennale) - Sponsored by: Ministry of Knowledge Economy, Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, Ministry of Public              Administration and Security, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Ministry of Education,                    Science and Technology, Embassy of Canada in Korea, Korea Craft Promotion Foundation,              Korea Tourism Organization, Chungcheongbuk-do, Chungcheongbuk-do Office of Education   The Organizing Committee of the Cheongju International Craft Biennale 2009 (361-828) #329 Heungdeok-ro, Heungdeok-gu, Cheongju-si, Chungcheongbuk-do, Republic of Korea TEL: 043-277-2501-3   FAX: 043-277-2610   http://www.okcj.org

‣Overview of Cheongju Homestay 2009  - Purpose: - To improve the global sense of Cheongju (so-called 'the City of Craft') and help people gain better understanding of the city - To establish an international cultural exchange system through craft culture - To promote international exchange and cultural education in private sectors     - Date: Sep. 23 - Nov. 1 2009 (40 days during the Cheongju International Craft Biennale)  - Venue: Art studios and ordinary citizens' homes in Cheongju and Cheongwon  - Target: Artists (ex: Painters and designers) living abroad or experts in a related field  - Type of homestay: 1. An artist's studio for creative exchange 2. an ordinary citizen's home to experience Korean family culture  - Description: - Major art studios in Cheongju and neighboring regions (Wood lacquer, fiber, ceramic, metal and other studios) - Ordinary citizens' homes - Free accommodations (by the Organizing Committee of the Biennale) - Meal and transportation cost personally charged (KRW 5,000 / meal) - Tour program separately discussed - Experience program and other cost reimbursement  - Hosted by: The Organizing Committee of the Cheongju International Craft Biennale  - Submission: An application should be submitted by Jul. 31 (Fri.), 2009. - Visit the website  (http://www.okcj.org)  à  fill out the application form  à  submit - Contact  yoohk2@hanmail.net (ENG), junjoonbae@yahoo.co.jp (JPN)