The Earth Will Swallow and Swallow
29th October – 29th November 2026
Curated By Moon Hyun Jeoung
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Photography by Julien Vinet & Poster of The Earth Will Swallow and Swallow
The Earth Will Swallow and Swallow
Featuring work by Alberto Favaro, Cha Ji Ryang, Cyril Sancereau, Julian Micallef, Michael Quinton, Minhee Kim, Minhoon Kim, Norbert Francis Attard, PONKS, Oh Sera, Yeoul Son and Yuja Kim
With VR performances by Charlene Galea, Tara Dalli & Felix Deepen, Romeo Roxman Gatt, Keit Bonnici, Martina Georgina, More Zmin and
KIM ON
Curated by Moon Hyun Jeoung
The Earth Will Swallow and Swallow expands upon the questions first raised by BEJN / In-Between, the Malta Pavilion at the 16th Gwangju Biennale. While BEJN / In-Between, presented in Gwangju, explored the relationships that emerge where different cultures, languages, histories, and identities intersect, this exhibition in Valletta turns its attention to how our experiences and cultures permeate one another, leave traces, and under go transformation through such encounters.
The exhibition begins by reconsidering the relationship between land and sea. We reflect upon the places where we stand. Malta, an island nation in the Mediterranean, and Korea, a peninsula surrounded by the sea on three sides, have forged distinct histories. Yet for both, the sea has served as a passage through which people, objects, languages, and cultures have moved. The land bears the marks of territorial possession and the ordering of borders, while the sea carries layered histories of navigation, trade, expansion, and domination. Set against this foundation, we recall that experiencing one another’s worlds anew becomes an encounter with difference and unfamiliarity, through which our own senses and perceptions
are reconfigured.
The exhibition takes its title, The Earth Will Swallow and Swallow, from a poem by the Maltese poet Jake Buttigieg. We rewrite this phrase, as the act of “swallowing” comes to mean taking something into oneself and releasing it back into the world in a different form. Continuing the encounter between Korea and Malta, this exhibition moves beyond cultural exchange between the two countries to focus on how artists from different cultural realms physically experience the history and culture of another land, and how they perceive and
interpret things within it.
Euljiro Lady, 360 degree video, 5 mins 57 seconds.
Filmed in Euljiro 4, Seoul 2026.
Photography by Sam Alekksandra
Moon Hyun Jeoung is a curator and researcher specializing in the intersection of contemporary technology, media and socio-cultural discourse. Her practice explores how art mediates the relationship between humanity and technological systems, with a particular interest in cybernetics and bio-art. Having worked across institutions including Art Center Nabi and Barakat Contemporary, Moon has developed research-driven exhibitions and critical writing that investigate experimental artistic practices and evolving institutional structures within contemporary art.
BEJN / In-Between is commissioned by Arts Council Malta for the 16th GwangjuBiennale, with the support of the Ministry for Foreign and European Affairs and VisitMalta.
Martina Georgina
DAD 001, 360 degree video, 5 mins 25 seconds.
Filmed in artist's father's garage, San Gwann, 2026.