Jeonnam International Sumuk Biennale is the only biennale in the world dedicated to exploring East Asian identity through the contemporary language of Sumuk (ink painting). Launched in 2018, the biennale takes place in the southwestern province of Jeollanam-do, Korea, and reimagines Sumuk, rooted in the aesthetics of East Asian brush and ink traditions, not as a static cultural heritage, but as a living, evolving medium for global artistic dialogue.
Rather than simply preserving tradition, the biennale invites artists from across the world to engage with Sumuk as a conceptual and material practice that resonates with questions of memory, place, temporality, and transformation. By bridging past and present, local and global, it aims to shape a new aesthetic discourse grounded in the cultural sensibilities of East Asia while speaking to the urgencies of the contemporary world.