ikkibawiKrrr: Rocks Living in Rewind, which first opened at Art Sonje Center in 2024, tours to Jeonnam Museum of Art and Seocheon Culture & Arts Creative Space in 2026.

ikkibawiKrrr: Rocks Living in Rewind tells the story of Maitreya statues that have endured through long stretches of time, and of the landscapes that surround them. The starting point for the exhibition is the figure of Maitreya. In the East Asian tradition, Maitreya is a bodhisattva symbolizing the future, and their presence has long been part of the Korean landscape. Yet over time, these statues were left behind—relegated to forgotten places on the margins of Buddhist temples or survived only as abandoned stones at village entrances and in fields. ikkibawiKrrr (Gyeol Ko, Jieun Cho) focus on the irony that this existence, freed from human care, instead emanates a greater sense of vitality, and therefore reframe Maitreya as “stone surviving the past.” In the figure of Maitreya, who has become truly free only through being abandoned, viewers are invited to imagine new relationships with ecological landscapes.

Dates: Aug 20 – Oct 5, 2026
Venue: Jeonnam Museum of Art
Artist: ikkibawiKrrr

Dates: Oct 20 – Nov 28, 2026
Venue: Seocheon Culture & Arts Creative Space
Artist: ikkibawiKrrr

About the Artist
ikkibawiKrrr
ikkibawiKrrr is a visual research band consisting of members Gyeol Ko and Jieun Cho. Their name combines the Korean words for “moss” (ikki) and “rock” (bawi) with the onomatopoeic word krrr. Their artistic approach reflects aspects of moss as something that expands its world with its surrounding environment along the narrow boundary between land and air. As the members meet with farmers, divers, scholars, and many others, ikkibawiKrrr learns about plants, natural phenomena, human beings, and ecology through their ways of life. The band has also explored phenomena relating to tropical life and seaweeds, which grow independently while also expanding their boundaries to become part of the environment. Their major group exhibitions include Aichi Triennale 2025: A Time Between Ashes and Roses (Aichi Arts Center, 2025); Manifesto of Spring (Asia Culture Center, Gwangju; M+; ZKM, 2025); Breath(e): Toward Climate and Social Justice (Hammer Museum, 2024); Forms of the Shadow (Secession, Vienna, 2024); Sending Love during Uncertain Time (M+, 2024); THIS TOO, IS A MAP (The 12th Seoul Mediacity Biennale, 2023); soft and weak like water (14th Gwangju Biennale, 2023); and Lumbung (Kassel Documenta 15, 2022).

Go to Related Programs
Rocks Living in Rewind: A Time of Maitreya
In conjunction with ikkibawiKrrr: Rocks Living in Rewind, currently on view at Jeonnam Museum of Art, we are running a tour program, Rocks Living in Rewind: A Time of Maitreya, visiting sites across Jeollanam-do where Maitreya figures still remain. Standing before figures that have watched over these places for generations, the program is an invitation to ask how their origins and beliefs carry into the present, and what these enduring stone figures still have to teach us.

Dates: Saturday, September 5, 12, and 19, 2026 — three sessions in total
Sites to Visit: Jeonnam Museum of Art – Seongbulsa Temple – Stone Standing Buddha in Haengjeong-ri, Suncheon – Stone Standing Buddha in Changchon-ri
Registration: Registration details will be announced separately.

This exhibition and program were produced through the 2026 K-Museum Touring: Exhibition & Tour Program (“Museum ieum”), presented jointly by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the The Korean Museum Association.
Official website: www.k-museum.kr
Official Instagram: @k_museum_ieum