Seongsan Art Hall

Jeuno JE Kim & Ewa Einhorn, Master of Confident Ignorance, 2023-2024, vacuum cleaner, silk, curtain tassel, mannequin, metal rod, 35 × 35 × 155 cm

This work is based on the worldview of “Krabstadt”. Based on the shape of a vacuum cleaner, this sculpture moves through and across space. The mix of materials reveals a sense of humor at play, as with the silk robe that drags along the floor when the cordless vacuum is in play. The costume worn by the vacuum cleaner sculpture is a robe for exhausted educators and students who fear failure. The two artists, both based in Northern Europe, sculpt a character that oscillates between academic dean and sanitary worker, presenting an elusive educational stage they dub “confident ignorance.” While performing its main function of greeting visitors at the entrance of Seongsan Art Hall, this vacuum teacher sculpture also takes responsibility for the cleaning, maintenance, and operation of the building.

 

Seongsan Art Hall

Jeuno JE Kim & Ewa Einhorn, Knot Curriculum for Break-Centred Education, 2024, ceramic, glue, dimensions variable

Made of porcelain and inspired by a line from poet Choi Seung-ja’s 2016 poetry collection, Hollow as an Empty Ship, this sentence reads, “Who will clean tomorrow’s windows?” Contemplating the title of the Biennale — silent apple, itself borrowed from a poem by Kim Hye-soon — artists Kim and Einhorn created a ceramic version of this sentence by Kim’s peer poet, Choi Seung-ja. Written in script, the form of the sentence suggests states of being tied and untied, in turn; baked without glaze, the porcelain of the letters retain their characteristic porosity. Both artists locate “learning” in mundane acts like cleaning a window or untying a knot; the two also note the cyclical and repetitive nature of ceramics writ large, as well as the singular individuality of each letter/object.