The 2026 Changwon Sculpture Biennale, now in its 8th edition, will open on September 30 under the theme 《Resonance Field》. This edition marks the first time in the biennale’s history to be organized under a co-artistic director system that includes an international director.
 
Hyejeong Cho, originally from Seoul, spent nine years in China, while Jun Jiang, originally from Shanghai, spent nine years in Germany. Having each grown within different environments and conditions away from their home countries, the meeting of these two curators is expected to generate a new resonance for the 2026 Changwon Sculpture Biennale.
 
Cho has worked between Korea and China, combining academic research with curatorial practice, through which she has developed both an insider’s perspective on East Asian contemporary art and an expanded, transnational outlook.
 
Jiang, meanwhile, studied in Münster, Germany, where he conducted on-site research on the internationally renowned Skulptur Projekte Münster. From this external European vantage point, he re-examined East Asia and cultivated a critical perspective that reads both Asia and the West simultaneously.

The parallel trajectories of these two curators converge through the shared language of contemporary sculpture, leading to the question: how can sculpture once again resonate with the world, the city, memory, and place?
 
Their connection began at the International Institute of Public Art (IIPA). Having engaged in academic activities together over several years, they have grown as colleagues and collaborators, further expanding their practice through joint projects in exhibition-making and writing. Their accumulated experiences across Asia and Europe are expected to serve as a driving force in shaping the 2026 Changwon Sculpture Biennale into a multidimensional and richly layered event.

Last December, the two directors successfully concluded the pre-program 《Resonance Tuning: Prelude to a Field》, which marked the opening chapter of the 2026 Changwon Sculpture Biennale.
 
Presented as a prologue exhibition, the program functioned as a space to calibrate and experiment with the artistic directions to be developed in the main exhibition. It focused on generating new forms of resonance by bringing together the historical, spatial, and industrial textures of the city of Changwon with the sensorial interpretations of artists from Korea and abroad.

The 12 participating artists and collectives—Kim Sang Gyun, Min Sunghong, Baek Jungki, Atlas Mapping Collective, Andrew Ananda Vollgel, Oh Jeisung, Wang Zhenghong, Yu Su Jin, Lim Hyungjun, Jang Wook Hee, Che Jianquan, and Han Yohan—presented a point of departure for the creative processes leading into the main exhibition, generating the first vibrations of the broader resonance that the 2026 Changwon Sculpture Biennale aims to unfold.
 
At a time when resonance itself seems to have grown faint, the 2026 Changwon Sculpture Biennale seeks to reconnect the world and humanity through the reverberations of sculpture. The biennale will take place across the city of Changwon from September 30 to November 15. Participating artists and programs will be announced sequentially via the biennale’s official website.

References

• 창원조각비엔날레 (Changwon Sculpture Biennale)