Korea's only sculpture biennial opened in the industrial port city of Changwon on Friday with 86 artists and collectives from 16 countries.
The 7th Changwon Sculpture Biennale (27 September–10 November 2024) derives its title, Silent Apple, from Korean poet Kim Hyesoon's poem A Well-Ripened Apple: 'Each time, an apple, as large as my hometown I returned to, / Peels away without a sound'. Artistic director Hyeon Seewon, an independent curator and co-director of AVP Lab in Seoul, adopted the line as an entry point into the exploration of the sculptural form, its making and movement, as well as the layered and interlocking spheres of labour, industry, and women workers.
Labour is an inseparable part of the history of Changwon, an old port town that began to thrive as an industrial city making machines in the 1970s, and is now a major manufacturing site for the defence and chemicals industries. In 2010, it merged with nearby Masan and Jinhae, becoming an even more important industrial centre in Korea.
In addition to Gwon Osang and Seoyoung Chung's works, the museum is showing Chris Ro's The Recurring, Prophetic, Lucid Dreams of a Sleeping City That Never Sleeps (2024), a room installation of screen-printed and painted sheets of fabric and vinyl that attempt to capture the negative, in-between spaces in the city.
—Sherry Paik
