The 3rd World Ceramic Biennale

ICHEON, SOUTH KOREA - Outside the main venue of the 3rd World Ceramic Biennale, Korean artist Kim Koo Han is supervising work on one of his latest pieces in clay: a two-story house. Dust sprays out of the half-moon windows as workers toil inside the bulbous structure. The house has taken over a year to build and at one point, had a 9-meter kiln erected around it. The house was fired for an entire month.

Kim's house is just one piece that the biennale's organizers hope will shatter perceptions of ceramics as simply a medium for making teacups, vases and sushi plates. From April 23 through June 19, the biennale offers a multitude of exhibitions, symposiums and workshops spread over three different sites about an hour's drive southeast of Seoul. Each emphasizes a different aspect of ceramics, from its beauty and versatility to its history.

"People think ceramics is just vessels and tableware, but actually it's a fantastic medium for the contemporary art field," says Kang Jae Young, international exhibitions leader for the World Ceramic Exposition Foundation (WOCEF), the organizers of the biennale. "There are eternal possibilities."

Kang helped curate one of the biennale's main exhibitions, "Trans-Ceramics Art," at the World Ceramic Center in Icheon. The show, which includes works by more than 30 international artists, features stoneware that looks more like rusted metal, dripped porcelain resembling coral and a decaying automobile made entirely of clay. British artist Antony Gormley has a large-scale installation of some 190,000 clay figures, Asian Field, from 2003.

Also on view at the Icheon museum are ceramic works of art by the winners and the 160 shortlisted artists of the biennale's 2005 international competition, which drew some 2,500 entries. Swiss artist Philippe Barde won the events $60,000 grand prize for his series of irregularly shaped porcelain bowls entitled Human Bowl Faces.

The biennale's two other venues, each about a half-hour drive from Icheon, focus on the functional uses and history of ceramics. The so-called "livingware" gallery in Yeoju has an exhibition of teapots, as well as elegant rooms showcasing the use of ceramics in daily life and interior design. The Joseon Royal Kiln Museum in Gwangju offers a look into the ceramic-making process, along with exhibitions of celadon and historical objects. A free bus will shuttle visitors between the three biennale sites.

Ceramics has been a tradition in Korea for thousands of years, most notably in porcelain and celadon pottery. Knowledge of the craft was largely lost, however, during the Japanese occupation of Korea from 1910 to 1936. WOCEF, a government-funded nonprofit foundation, was created in 1999 to support and promote the Korean ceramics trade, beginning with the $140 million facilities in Icheon, Gwangju and Yeoju.

The World Ceramic Biennale debuted in 2001, attracting six million visitors. Some four million are expected at this year's event, mostly from Korea but also Japan, Taiwan and the U.S.

"Koreans are very proud of their ceramics," says Nam Ki-Myong, WOCEF's secretary general. "We would like to make it as well known as the ceramics of Japan and Europe."