Kwon Byungjun

What’s On

Performances

World Premiere, New CommissionSound InstallationMusic

Speak Slowly and It Will Become a Song

“From Cheongju To Kyiv” 2022
Photo: National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea

“We Will Have a Serious Night” by Ghost Theater 2022, HongDong Reservoir
Photo: ARKO

Photo: Ryohei Tomita

Photo: Ryohei Tomita

Photo: Ryohei Tomita

Date

9/13 (Sat) - 9/21 (Sun): 9:30-17:00
10/25 (Sat) - 11/9 (Sun): 9:30-16:30

* 10/27 (Mon), 11/4 (Tue) venue closed

Venue

Aichi Prefectural Ceramic Museum, Lawn Square
(234 Minamiyamaguchi-cho, Seto-shi)

Language

Japanese, Korean and English

Tickets

With exhibition ticket.

Ticket Purchase

Seating

No Seating

Staff

Direction:: Kwon Byungjun
Sound design, assistance:: Yoon Suhee
Voice performer:: Kim Insook, John-Francis Kinsler, Nancy Elizabeth Kim
Japanese transcript:: Kim Roeun
Translation:: Ishikawa Juri

Production Cooperation:: Department of Visual Media, School of Media Design, University of Arts and Sciences

Performance flyer

It will be released at a later date.

Assistance for viewing

[Before you attend]

This work is available in three language options: Japanese, Korean, and English.
Preschool-aged children are welcome to attend this performance.
This work is experienced while moving across a sloping outdoor lawn. The lawn is wheelchair accessible.
We recommend wearing comfortable shoes as the lawn may be difficult to walk on. Please take extra care during and after rainfall, as the ground may become muddy.

[Assistance for blind and visually impaired visitors]

We offer mobility assistance between the venue and the nearest station, as well as throughout your visit . Advance registration is required. Further details will be announced on the official website at a later date.

Profile

Born 1971 in Seoul, Korea. Based in Seoul, Korea.

Kwon Byungjun commenced his career as a singer-songwriter in the 1990s, and became active in many other fields including film soundtracks and music for theater. In the late 2000s, he went to the Netherlands and studied the development of electronic instruments at STEIM, a center of research and production dedicated to music and technology. Upon his return to South Korea, he developed new media performances fusing music, theater, and art, and came to the fore as a pioneer in sound installations utilizing Ambisonic (an immersive 3D audio system). In 2023, he won the Korea Artist Prize for a work using robots.
For Aichi Triennale 2025, Kwon is making a sound installation that will allow visitors to explore a virtual world built of sound that matches the natural environment in the space outside the Aichi Prefectural Ceramic Museum, while strolling around the area wearing headphones. The title represents the process by which song naturally emerges from within through the slow articulation of spoken language. In preparation for this work, he researched Seto pottery and folk songs conveying the traces of traditional life. He likewise collected sounds of the local earth, water, fire, vegetation, and sounds of streets and people. He used them to construct a sonic outdoors sculpture in which the virtual world and nature overlap. Through the application of precision GPS and three-dimensional audio technology, the sounds change in correspondence with the movement of the visitor. The work engenders a special experience that makes the boundary between reality and virtuality fluctuate.

Selected solo and group exhibitions

2023–24: Korea Artist Prize 2023, National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (Seoul, Korea)
2022: Solo exhibition, “We Will Have a Serious Night” by Ghost Theater, Hong-Dong Reservoir (Seoul, Korea)
2021: “We Will Have a Serious Night” by Ghost Theater, Namsangol Hanok Village (Seoul, Korea)
2021: Solo exhibition, Neverland Soundland: Kwon Byungjun - Sound Walk, Busan Museum of Art (Korea)
2020: Solo exhibition, Club Golden Flower, Cosmo 40 (Incheon, Korea)