Cheongju craft festival to open on September 13

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Cheongju Craft Biennale Organization

Sep 12, 2017, 02:53 ET

CHEONGJU, South Korea, Sept. 12, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- A month-long international craft biennale will be opened in Cheongju, a city which is 140 kilometers away from south of Seoul, later this week under the theme of "Hands Plus Embrace".

The 2017 Cheongju Craft Biennale, the 10th of its kind, will run from September 13 to October 22 in Cheongju, featuring more than 4,000 works presented by 780 teams from 18 countries.

This photo, provided by the Cheongju Craft Biennale's organizer on Sept. 12, 2017, shows American sculptor Janet Echelman's "Line Travelling Through Space and Time," which will be displayed at the upcoming festival. (PRNewsfoto/Cheongju Craft Biennale)

The festival's main exhibition, "Re-Craft," will be comprised of 669 digital craft works, including "Line Travelling Through Space and Time" by internationally recognized American sculptor Janet Echelman and "Loomings", by British artist David Ogle.

Notable this year is the organizing committee's decision to strike out the word "International" from the official title of the event in a bid to further promote local culture to the world.

As part of these efforts, the committee has also scrapped the post of general supervisor for the festival, and instead, 11 artists including poets, composers, film directors and architects, have been appointed as co-supervisors.

"We'll endeavor to develop the biennale into a world-class event based on regionality," the committee's secretary general Kim Ho-il said during a meeting with reporters on Saturday.

This year's theme was chosen as a way to find common ground for communicating with the public as "traditional crafts meet new genres and technologies", according to the official website of the biennale.

The Global Pavilion will display over 600 pieces by more than 300 artists from nine countries under different themes, such as "The Future of Craft" and "Craft in Daily Life".

The biennale will also present a series of symposiums and workshops, including "The Biennale of Yesterday", "The Future of Craft in the time of the Integration of Art, Science, Technology and Information" and "My Craft Participants."

In addition, the event will showcase "Cheongju Digital Craft Lab," an education program that allows participants to experiment with LED lights, microcontrollers, sensors, and 3D scanners and printers.

SOURCE Cheongju Craft Biennale Organization