[News Culture] Visitors to this year’s Gyeonggi Ceramics Biennale will not have to remain on the sidelines. A month-long series of participatory workshops will put clay directly into their hands, inviting them to work alongside international artists and experience how ideas take shape through material, movement and collaboration.
The Korea Ceramic Foundation is recruiting participants for the September programs of the Gyeonggi Ceramics Biennale 2026 International Ceramics Workshop, which runs from September 18 to October 18 around the Gyeonggi Museum of Contemporary Ceramic Art in Icheon.
Built around the Biennale’s theme, “Earth Makes,” the program shifts attention from finished objects to the act of making itself. Visitors can touch clay and natural materials, observe local landscapes, work with their senses and contribute to collaborative pieces under the guidance of artists from Australia, the United Kingdom, Germany, Denmark, France, Japan and Korea.
Participation in the workshops is free, although eligibility and capacity vary by program. Advance reservations are available, while remaining places may also be offered on site.
Australian artist Yasmin Smith takes participants beyond the museum with “Walk & Talk: Traces of Earth.” Joined by a professional forest interpreter, participants will walk through Seolbongsan Mountain in Icheon, examining its geology, soil and natural environment before translating those observations into creative work.
British artist William Cobbing approaches clay through perception and human interaction in “So You,” while German artist David Rauer’s “HAPPY PRODUCTIONS” combines clay, sound and collective participation to build a single evolving work.
Danish artist Maja Quille turns soil itself into a visual language in “Reading the Colours of Soil: The Korean Landscape through Soil Chromatography,” exploring how the colors and patterns found in earth can be read as portraits of place.
The lineup also extends into water, animation and ecology. French artist Lorie Ballage draws on memories and landscapes associated with public swimming pools, while Japanese artist Kai Sakamoto transforms clay into moving images through “Making Cities: Icheon – Clay Animation Workshop.”
French artist duo Scenocosme brings visitors into closer contact with the natural environment through “A Dialogue with Nature,” and Korea-based artist Ley Wang leads “Biosphere,” another hands-on project examining the relationship between material, environment and living systems.
Together, the workshops broaden ceramics beyond the conventional image of shaping a vessel at a wheel. Soil can become a record of landscape, clay a tool for examining another person, and the act of making a platform for sound, movement, memory and collective experience.
The Biennale will also open artists’ working spaces to the public through its Creative Open Studio program.
The first session will feature Maja Quille, Yasmin Smith, Kai Sakamoto, David Rauer and Ley Wang, giving visitors access to the studios at the Gyeonggi Museum of Contemporary Ceramic Art. Rather than presenting only completed works, the program offers a close look at how artists test materials, revise ideas and experiment with new forms as their projects develop.
Korea Ceramic Foundation President Ryu In-kwon said the International Ceramics Workshop was designed to give visitors an opportunity to experience ceramic art at close range by touching clay and making works together with artists.
He added that the programs would allow children, families and other visitors to discover new dimensions of ceramics through direct encounters with artists from around the world.
The Gyeonggi Ceramics Biennale 2026 opens on September 18 under the theme “Earth Makes.”
Reported by News Culture M.J._mj94070777@nc.press
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