The 5th Jeju Biennale, 2026: Pre-Exhibition Workshop
Title
Bean Pillow: Migrating Beans, Converging Cultures
Date/Venue
Saturday, October 25, 2025, 14:00–16:00,Multipurpose Room, Aewol Library
Host
Jeju Special Self-Governing Province
Organizer
Jeju Museum of Art
Collaboration
Jeju City (Aewol Library)
Instructor
Artist Yeon-mi and Mujorisil
This hands-on workshop explores how cultural influences from the north have shaped Jeju's distinctive identity — through the lens of the bean. It focuses on five varieties associated with Jeju and the northern regions, representing the four cardinal directions and the Jeju blue bean. Participants made bean-filled pillows and keyrings, and shared Jeju-style bean soup alongside Middle Eastern hummus, uncovering the cultural meanings embedded in this ingredient. The workshop offered a playful and accessible entry point into the Biennale's themes of cultural encounter and convergence as experienced in everyday life.
Workshop Program1. Stories of the Bean
A talk on Jeju's bean culture and an introduction to the workshop.
2. Making a Bean-Filled Pillow
Making pillow using embroidery designs representing five bean varieties.
3. Making a Bean Pouch Keyring
Crafting a bean pouch keyring as a portable symbol of movement.
4. Bean Food Culture Experience
A tasting of bean-based dishes that speak to Jeju's community, nature, and culinary life, with conversation.
About the InstructorsMujorisil
Mujorisil — whose name evokes a formless, spaceless, boundless kitchen that once served everyday meals, festive tables, and ancestral rites alike from a single hearth — is a practice rooted in building relationships between people, nature, and locality through food in Jeju. Working amid the climate crisis and the global homogenization of food culture, Mujorisil continually asks what we eat, how we eat, and with whom, sustaining a food culture of sharing that draws on locally sourced ingredients.
Artist Yeon-mi
A visual artist who explores her relationship with society through the medium of newspaper, Yeonmi has deepened her engagement with the objects and relationships surrounding her since relocating to Jeju. As a cultural arts organizer, her encounter with a chef and the launch of the Mujorisil project sparked a growing interest in the cultural value of cooking. She approaches food culture as a medium that connects nature and people, links communities, and generates meaning in everyday life.
Chef Kim Hyojeong
Kim Hyojeong began cooking in Jeju in 2014, forging connections between the island and her culinary practice. As head chef and representative of the Mujorisil, she works across culinary research, cooking classes, and workshops, with a particular focus on heirloom beans and their role in local food culture.
