[Gallery Walk] A Tap on the Lips Sets the Pavilion Resonating... All of Changwon Becomes a ‘Resonance Field’

2026 Changwon Sculpture Biennale Opens September 30; 81 Artists from 74 Teams Present Over 200 Works
From Seongsan Art Hall to the Century-Old Jinhae Station and Masan Fish Market,
The Entire City Becomes an Exhibition Space
Director Hyejun

A vast net made of fine thread droops from beneath the ceiling of a traditional hanok pavilion. The wind slips through the openings, and sunlight filters between the threads to settle on the wooden floor. Although each stitch was made by hand, Sohee Jo's '...Where...' creates not a mass but empty spaces. The artist refers to this process as “weaving emptiness.” Inside the traditional pavilion, the threads do not fill the space but rather leave it open.

Manal Al Dowayan 'Hear Me Out'. Manal Al Dowayan's 'Hear Me Out' (2026), installed in the pavilion of Changwon's house. When you tap the three brass lips, the resonance of the metal spreads throughout the hanok, questioning the relationship between speaking and listening, silence and response. Photo by Heeyoon Kim

A short distance away, in Changwon's house, three brass lips gaze at a bamboo grove. This is 'Hear Me Out,' a new work by Saudi Arabian artist Manal Al Dowayan. The title of the piece, 'Is-Ma-Ni,' means "Hear Me Out" in Arabic. When you tap the hollow lips inspired by traditional Korean metal percussion instruments, a metallic sound spreads throughout the pavilion.

The speaking mouth simultaneously becomes a resonator, and the audience becomes both the listener and the creator of sound. This is the moment when the exhibition title, 'Resonance Field,' is felt most tangibly. The press release likewise explains that the work explores the relationships between voice and silence, speaking and listening.

Sohee Jo '...Where...' Installed at the pavilion of Changwon History and Folklore Museum, Sohee Jo's '...Where...' (2020). Thin threads were connected with a crochet hook to create a large circle, but it did not fill the space entirely, leaving gaps where light, wind, and gaze can pass through. Photo by Brian Heeseong Kim

The 8th Changwon Sculpture Biennale opens on September 30. Over 47 days, until November 15, 81 artists from 74 teams representing 41 cities and regions around the world will present more than 200 works. The exhibitions are not confined to Seongsan Art Hall. Instead, venues such as Changwon's house, the Changwon History and Folklore Museum, the area surrounding Jinhae Station, and Masan Fish Market are all connected in one flow, linking the differing times and places of Changwon, Jinhae, and Masan. For the first time, the Changwon Sculpture Biennale is being held under the direction of both a foreign and a Korean co-artistic director. Hyejung Cho of Korea and Jun Zhang of China are leading the event together.

At the press conference on the 29th, Co-Artistic Director Hyejung Cho summed up the exhibition in a single sentence.

"Resonance begins not with sameness, but with difference."

Hyejung Cho, Co-Artistic Director. Hyejung Cho, Co-Artistic Director of the 2026 Changwon Sculpture Biennale, is explaining the exhibition theme 'Resonance Chamber' at a press conference on the 29th. Director Cho said, "Resonance begins not with sameness but with difference." Photo by Heeyoon Kim

This is why the various colors on the poster do not blend together. Inspired by the traditional Korean 'Obangsaek' (five-color palette), the colors meet while retaining their uniqueness. Director Cho likened this to "Changwon as it exists today, with different times and identities coexisting in one city." The collaborative process of the four Korean and Chinese curators was far from smooth. "It was by no means easy for people from different backgrounds, languages, and perspectives to create an exhibition that did not converge on a single answer but maintained each viewpoint," she said. "However, this process itself embodied resonance as explored in 'Resonance Field.'"

Here, resonance is not simply about peaceful harmony. Director Cho emphasizes that "it is a place where different beings willingly meet while maintaining their differences and open up the possibility of changing themselves through each other's influence." She started from the awareness that in this era of algorithms that select preferences and provide answers before we even ask, the opportunity to coexist and interact with strangers in the same space has diminished.

Installation artwork by Patricia Perez Eustaquio. The installation by Filipino artist Patricia Perez Eustaquio overlays abaca fibers with images from the colonial era, unfolding the memories of trade and colonization embedded in the materials from a contemporary perspective.

This is why sculpture is the chosen medium. Director Cho's explanation moves from the theoretical to the physical at this point. "When you stand in front of a sculpture, you instinctively stop moving. You circle around it, becoming aware of and adjusting the distance between your body and the work."

Sculptures possess weight and occupy real space; unlike images on a smartphone screen, you can't simply swipe them away with your finger. You must share space with other objects. Director Cho found the possibility for resonance precisely in this "physical experience of staying in the same place with other beings and forming relationships."

At Seongsan Art Hall, that definition broadens further. Da-Eui Jung's 'Physiological Response 3: Changwon Project' measures the wind from three locations in Changwon with sensors and transforms it into sound inside the exhibition hall. Thus, the invisible natural phenomenon of wind is turned into data, and then into sound again.

On the opposite side, Pedro Reyes's massive 'Zero Nukes' blocks the visitor's path. The mushroom cloud is an all-too-familiar yet unwelcome form, drawn into the heart of the exhibition to confront viewers with the threat of nuclear weapons at a bodily scale. On this day, Director Cho explained, "In the main exhibition, sculpture appears not as a finished object, but as an event where materials, bodies, artworks, and places meet and change each other's state."

Sangsub Jung's Repetitive Dilemma - Witdruk (2026). Through a crowd of recurring posture and expressionless faces, it reveals how social discipline and commands align the individual's body. Photo by Heeyoon Kim

On the wall, Sangsub Jung’s ‘Repetitive Dilemma – Witdruk’ creates a blue procession. Figures in nearly identical uniforms repeat the same gestures. By pushing these repeated images, the work reveals how faces and postures are disciplined and aligned by society's rules. In the adjacent gallery, Baek Ingon's figure sculptures are layered and joined as if cut and assembled like wood grain.

The artist believes that, like traces left by water and wind, memories disappear yet accumulate inside the body at the same time. These works suggest that the 'resonance' discussed in this exhibition is not necessarily a warm or harmonious chord.

The special exhibition 'Sculpture Before Sculpture,' curated exclusively by Director Cho, takes one step further back. "It started from the very simple idea that sculpture was originally a part of our lives," she explained. Carving stone, shaping wood, binding and piling materials—through these acts, humans prayed and remembered.

Long before the museum or the artistic genre of 'sculpture' ever existed, humans already engaged with the world in a sculptural way. Works by Kim Yunshin, Sim Moonseop, Park Seokwon, Mader Seong, Zhan Wang, Ju Ming, and others are reinterpreted through acts such as carving, emptying, binding, and stacking.

Guo-Jian Wang's "Museum on the Water's Edge" Series. The series "Museum on the Water's Edge" by Chinese artist Guo-Jian Wang. It overlays images of traditional lacquerware, physiognomy, and masks from religious and folk beliefs onto a single face, revealing multiple layers of identity and memory. Photo by Heeyoon Kim

As the exhibition extends beyond Seongsan Art Hall, its character becomes even more evident. Jinhae Station marks its 100th anniversary this year. Built in 1926, the old station has been repurposed as an exhibition venue for the Biennale. Sim Moonseop has placed his new boat-shaped work ‘Reflection,’ made of mother-of-pearl and lacquer, while Kim Sooja presents ‘Deductive Object – The Grid,’ inspired by the linear structure of railway tracks.

Masses of bricks stacked in repetition are placed along the old tracks, drawing out the rhythms of both sculpture and the railway. Director Cho explained, "Although Jinhae is such a fascinating place, it has never before been used as a major exhibition venue for past Biennales," and added, "This time, we chose it as a key location for the first time."

Sim Moonseop's "Reflection" (2026). A boat-shaped sculpture finished with mother-of-pearl inlay and lacquer is placed at the 100-year-old Jinhae Station, overlapping the memory of the sea and countless times of movement and farewell in one space. Changwon Sculpture Biennale

At Masan Fish Market, Soojin Yoo has created a miniature city out of about 1,000 canned goods. The work depicts the proportions of foreign residents of Changwon by nationality, represented through the number of cans. However, these statistics do not last long. As visitors take cans and they are refilled, the original proportions are disrupted. Through these changes in the sculpture, the work shows how people, once divided by numbers, constantly mingle in a real city.

The Biennale features no central work that provides a single correct answer. In fact, this principle lies at the core of its curatorial approach. Director Cho further explained, "In the exhibition spaces, there are works that do not simply present sculpture as an object to be looked at, but which prompt the viewer to move, reconsider the venue, and encounter issues and senses that had previously gone unnoticed due to their familiarity."

This is why one must journey from Seongsan Art Hall, past the pavilions of traditional hanok houses, to the century-old railway station and market, before the full outline of the exhibition becomes clear. Venturing into the city to see the sculptures, a visitor may find themselves seeing the city itself anew. The resonance that 'Resonance Field' seeks perhaps lies somewhere in between.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.