Cheongju Craft Biennale 2025 "Re_Crafting Tomorrow" 60 Days of Grandeur Begin on September 4

Works by 1,300 artists from 72 countries, comprising over 2,500 pieces complete the "Re_Crafting Tomorrow"

CHEONGJU, South Korea, Sept. 3, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- The Cheongju Craft Biennale 2025 will embark on a 60-day journey beginning with the opening ceremony at 10:00 a.m. on September 4.

Featuring works by 1,300 artists from 72 countries and totaling more than 2,500 pieces. This Biennale proclaims itself unprecedented in scale. True to its theme, <Re_Crafting Tomorrow> the Biennale builds on craft, which is rooted in the fundamental acts of cooking, clothing, and shelter that have shaped human life, as its cornerstone. It integrates art, design, and architecture; connects human beings, nature, and objects; and raises questions about the earth's future in collaboration with communities, stacking these concerns into a structural and lucid narrative of craft's new identity and potential.

At the pre-press tour held on Wednesday, September 3, domestic and international media remarked that "from the main exhibition to every exhibition space, from the arrangement of works to the movement paths, everything was meticulously designed and executed with utmost sincerity, like a magnificent architectural structure that is both sensorial and overwhelming," adding that "the 2025 Cheongju Craft Biennale will serve as proof of why Cheongju is recognized as a World Craft City." 

Main Exhibition

"How does universal civilization evolve through aestheticism to become craft that coexists with communities? "

In this digital age of image saturation and speed, in a time of impoverished abundance where expensive luxury goods coexist with disposables, in an era where development and growth themselves trigger disaster, and where consumption only multiplies waste and intensifies human guilt—what can craft do? The main exhibition of the Cheongju Craft Biennale 2025 embodies precisely this question. Artistic Director Kang Jae-young stated, "This exhibition shows how universal craft, which began as indispensable items for human survival, evolves through aestheticism to become craft for all beings and ultimately craft with communities. This Biennale is a site where craft generates a new civilization through the act of 'making together and sharing together.'" The main exhibition, composed of 4 subthemes, features 148 artists from 55 teams across 16 countries.

#1. Crafts as Metaculture
#2. Crafts for Aestheticians
#3. Crafts for All Beings
#4. Craft with Communities

Special and Extraordinary – Special Exhibitions

No less a highlight than the main exhibition of the Cheongju Craft Biennale 2025 are its special exhibitions.

Among them, "Hyundai Translocal Series: Entangled and Woven" is the inaugural exhibition of the Hyundai Translocal Series, a new initiative by Hyundai Motor Company that aims to support cross-regional artistic collaborations and exchanges between art institutions in Korea and across the globe. The exhibition is co-organized by the Cheongju Craft Biennale 2025 and the Whitworth, The University of Manchester, in collaboration with the National Crafts Museum & Hastkala Academy. It examines historic and current exchanges in textile art between the three cities under the theme of 'craft and community.'

Eight artists and collectives from Korea and India present new works, alongside a selection of historic Indian textiles from the Whitworth's collection. While being rooted in distinct cultural and aesthetic traditions, their works reflect and resonate across boundaries. Each work conveys a unique voice, catalyzing a dialogue that foregrounds textiles not only as aesthetic and utilitarian objects but also as carriers of knowledge, memory, power and resistance.

Artist Yeonsoon CHANG (Korea) draws on the concept of WorinCheongang to weave insight into the meditative quality and performative nature of textile labor. Youngin HONG (Korea), working with a women's craft community in India's Kutch region, transforms traditional appliqué and embroidery techniques into sensorial contemporary works. Somi KO (Korea) uses khadi cotton, which is a material symbolizing both the industrialization of India's weaving industry during the British colonial period and its struggle for independence, as well as her own "somisa" method to craft textile sculptures and garments that trace the arc of human life. Jounghye YOO (Korea) creates veil works that respond to the movement and breath of viewers, forming a space where rich cultural heritages and symbolic systems of India and Korea resonate with one another. The works of these four Korean artists possess a power that is deeply moving.

Also featured are Boito (India), who presents new woven panels inspired by structural parallels between Korean Buddhist art and Indian traditions; Kaimurai (India), who transforms the impression of the Korean bell (jong) encountered during the research trip into philosophical textile paintings; and PÉRO (India), an alternative collective of practitioners resisting the homogenized global fashion industry through slowness and collaborative practice; Sumakshi SINGH (India), who explores the symbolism of a "bridge" connecting two places through a large-scale textile installation. The Whitworth's selection of Indian textiles from its collection, that reveal the technical brilliance and layered histories of South Asian fabric traditions, forms a dialogue with the new works in "Hyundai Translocal Series: Entangled and Woven"—one of the Biennale's must-see highlights.

Adding another layer of distinction is the "Seongpa Seonye Exhibition". Since becoming a monk in 1960, Venerable Seongpa, who is a Supreme Patriarch of the Jogye Order, has pursued both spiritual practice and art-making, producing original works across calligraphy, Korean painting, ceramics, sculpture, and dyeing. The title of this exhibition, 'Myeongmyeong Baekbaek', reflects the essence of his life's artistic journey. True to its title, the exhibition debuts for the first time a single monumental hanji work stretching 100 meters in length. Surpassing the limits of traditional papermaking techniques, this vast piece, dazzling and pure like dawn's first snowfall, invites viewers to walk and gaze in silence, shedding worldly concerns and opening a path into contemplation.

Invited Country Exhibition Thailand – Living in an Elastic Time

Another reason not to miss this Biennale is the Invited Country Exhibition. For the first time in Biennale history, a single Asian country has been invited as a solo guest nation: Thailand. The exhibition is curated by Gridthiya Gaweewong, Artistic Director and recipient of the 2025 Audrey Irmas Award for Curatorial Excellence from Bard College, an honor awarded to the most pioneering and innovative curators in the global art world. Entitled "Living in an Elastic Time", the exhibition highlights Thailand's crafts, which have preserved their unique culture and spirit despite the pressures of speed and commercialization. It is composed of 3 sections of 'Creating without Time limits', 'Techno-Craft', and 'Time is the True Home of the Mind'. And the 'Thai Culture Week' held September 9–14, are additional highlights not to be missed.

Mayor Lee Beom-seok stated, "On September 4, Cheongju, the World Craft City, will become the historic site where the values of craft and the world are connected to build a new world through craft. We invite you to the Cheongju Craft Biennale 2025, which is a 60-day celebration of craft that considers the environment, serves communities, and heals the wounds of social conflict and civilization. With unprecedented scale and world-class works, it will demonstrate the greater power of culture." 

The Cheongju Craft Biennale 2025 will run for 60 days, from September 4, to November 2, at the Culture Factory and across Cheongju. Exhibition hours are 10:00 a.m.–7:00 p.m., closed on Mondays.

Meanwhile, Cheongju is home to Jikji, the world's oldest metal movable type. Since 1999, it has hosted the world's first specialized biennial for crafts and is the only 'World Crafts City' in South Korea designated by the World Crafts Council (WCC).

Contact : Cheongju Craft Biennale Organizing Committee (www.okcj.org)

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SOURCE The Organizing Committee of the Cheongju Craft Biennale(South Korea)