Art Sonje Center presents a solo exhibition “ikkibawiKrrr: Rocks Living in Rewind” by the visual research band ikkibawiKrrr (Gyeol Ko, Jungwon Kim, and Jieun Cho), through January 26, next year.

The exhibition focuses on stones and places that endure time while being covered by nature, protecting themselves. Among these stones, many of these stones take the form of Maitreya, the Buddha symbolizing the future. In the East Asian tradition, Maitreya is a bodhisattva symbolizing the future. His presence established itself as part of the Korean landscape through the influences of the Donghak, Buddhism, and Muism.

Over time, however, sculptures of Maitreya were relegated to forgotten places on the margins of Buddhist temples or survived only as abandoned stones at village entrances and in fields. ikkibawiKrrr focuses on the reality surrounding these sculptures of Maitreya, presenting new works across various media, including installation, two-dimensional art, and video.

The Maitreyas found beside ruined sheds and sunlit abandoned schools seem to emanate all the more vitality for no longer being cared for. Taking note of this irony, ikkibawiKrrr focuses new attention on Maitreya as “stone surviving the past” through the new film and sculpture work Rocks Living in Rewind (2024), which is about the landscapes where Maitreya is present and the landscapes where we are a part.

The actual rubbing work of Maitreya statues, Rock n’ Feel (2024), conveys the artists’ tactile and sensory experience of encountering the cold and solid stone statues by using charcoal to trace and feel the surface of the Maitreya figures. This approach elicits a sensory connection with an alienated landscape and sculpture, allowing for the rediscovery of the forgotten presence of art in life.

The artists bring landscapes shaped by oddly formed rocks and bizarre stones into the exhibition space through the work Everybody Mountain (2024), created using paper clay and ink. The video Dances with Trash (2024) captures dust and trash dancing amidst ruins, evoking a new relationship that harmoniously exists within untouched dust, free from human interference.

At the beginning and end of the exhibition, Buddha High Five (2024) serves as a medium through which visitors can enter by “rocks living in rewind.”

ikkibawiKrrr begins with the imagination that, to approach the future envisioned by Maitreya, one might need to embrace the past and live “in rewind.” Through this solo exhibition, the Art Sonje Center invites viewers to reflect on the landscapes of everyday life, seeking solace and hope that Maitreya offers as one “surviving the past” amidst abandoned stones and landscapes.

“ikkibawiKrrr: Rocks Living in Rewind”
2024.12.03 - 2025.01.26
Tue-Sun 12:00 pm - 7:00 pm
Art Sonje Center
87 Yulgok-ro 3-gil, Jongno-gu, Seoul, Korea

Ji Yeon Lee has been working as an editor for the media art and culture channel AliceOn since 2021 and worked as an exhibition coordinator at samuso (now Space for Contemporary Art) from 2021 to 2023.