Opening
ENG
KOR
Hello, and welcome to the Gyeonggi Ceramics Biennale 2026.
This year’s main exhibition is titled “Earth Makes.”
We often think of ceramics as something people make by shaping clay. But this exhibition begins with a different question.
Are ceramics really made by human hands alone? Or are they also shaped by clay, water, fire, and time?
Clay is a material formed by the Earth over immense spans of time. Even after it reaches human hands, it continues to change in response to water, fire, air, and time. Cracks, warping, and shifts in color all become part of the work. This exhibition looks at ceramics not simply as the result of human making, but as a process shaped through the interaction of people, materials, and the Earth.
The exhibition unfolds across three chapters.
The first chapter, “Made from Earth,” focuses on transformations created by clay, water, and fire. Clay cracks, warps, and responds in ways of its own. These changes become part of the work and, at times, a way for artists to express their thoughts and inner worlds.
The second chapter, “Made by Earth,” explores the histories and memories of places, communities, and cultures shaped over time through relationships between people and the land. The special section “Focus Australia” looks at how First Nations knowledge and community, along with histories of colonization and migration, continue to shape contemporary ceramic practices in Australia. In the collaborative project “Landscape,” ceramics, architecture, wind, and light come together to create a place that can be experienced as a whole.
The third chapter, “Made in Earth,” asks how ceramics might help us imagine futures of coexistence among humans, nature, and technology in an age of climate crisis and rapid technological change. In the special project “Dear Future,” emerging ceramic artists from 28 universities across Korea imagine the world 100 years from now, asking what we will make today and what we will leave for future generations.
Now, let’s follow the traces of clay, fire, time, and land that remain within the works.
