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Korea Herald
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Korea Herald
Seoul Mediacity Biennale to embrace the mystical in media art
The 13th Seoul Mediacity Biennale, scheduled to kick off on Aug. 26, will bring together 49 artists and collectives under the theme of 'Seance: Technology of Spirit." The term 'seance,' derived from French, refers to an attempt to communicate with spirits. The 13th edition of the biennale, running through Nov. 23 at the Seoul Museum of Art, or SeMA, will be led by Anton Vidokle, artist and founder of e-flux; Hallie Ayres, art historian and curator; and Lukas Brasiskis, curator of video and film at e-flux. The biennale will explore the influence of mystical and spiritual experience on the development of modern and contemporary art. 'It's very significant that many artists have in recent years gravitated towards ways of understanding the world that might offer an alternative to the prevailing systems, which seem at present to be in crisis,' said the curators. Starting with the artistic practice of British artist Georgiana Houghton (1814-1884), who achieved her first mediumistic drawings after attending her first seance in 1859, the exhibition will encompass the influence of shamanism on video art founder Paik Nam-june and German Fluxus artist Joseph Beuys, as well as transcendental experiences depicted in the early experimental films of American artists Maya Deren and Jordan Belson. The biennale will also feature works by contemporary artists engaged with the diverse traditions and themes of the occult, enchantment and magic. The Seoul Mediacity Biennale, launched in 2000 by the Seoul Metropolitan Government, has earned international recognition for its experimental engagement with contemporaneous changes within the media landscape of the city, redefining what media is and can be.
Korea Herald
16-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Korea Herald
Six decades of Korean contemporary art unfold in UAE's largest showcase
'Layered Medium: We Are in Open Circuits' runs through June 30 at Manarat Al Saadiyat in Abu Dhabi The history and evolution of Korea's contemporary art scene is now on view in the United Arab Emirates through the most extensive presentation to date in the Gulf Cooperation Council region. Titled 'Layered Medium: We Are In Open Circuits,' the exhibition opened Friday at Manarat Al Saadiyat in Abu Dhabi, featuring 48 works by 29 Korean artists and spanning the 1960s to the present. All works are part of the Seoul Museum of Art's collection, and the exhibition was co-curated by UK-based independent curator Maya El Khalil and Yeo Kyung-hwan of SeMA. 'Works from the Seoul Museum of Art's collection that may have carried specific cultural resonance in Seoul could become more abstract or universal here, while other dimensions of this location surface new meanings,' said El Khalil. 'This transfer is not a loss but a transformation, where different depths of connection become possible.' Visitors will encounter works by pioneering experimental artists Park Hyun-ki and Lee Kun-yong; internationally acclaimed multimedia artists Kim Ayoung and Jun So-jung; and leading interdisciplinary figures such as Lee Bul and Haegue Yang. The exhibition traces key moments in Korea's contemporary art history, beginning with the radical experimentation of the 1960s and 1970s, when artists began working with video, photography and performance. Highlights include Paik Nam-june's 'Self-Portrait Dharma Wheel,' Park Hyun-ki's 'TV Fishbowl' and 'Video Inclining Water.' Also featured are works that examine the body and sensory perception as tools for understanding the world, including Lee Kun-yong's 'The Method of Drawing: Body Drawing 76-2' and Oh Min's 'Etude for Etude (Music Performance).' Organized as part of a three-year institutional partnership between SeMA and the Abu Dhabi Music & Arts Foundation, the exhibition underscores six decades of Korea's media art history while fostering cultural dialogue with the UAE. 'This historic exhibition showcases the evolution of Korea's media art scene over six decades, as well as its interaction with the artistic landscape of the UAE,' said Huda Alkhamis-Kanoo, founder of ADMAF. 'Under the joint curation of SeMA's Kyung-hwan Yeo and Maya El Khalil, it also highlights the pioneering figures whose innovation and creativity have helped define what contemporary art is today.' An accompanying publication, "Layered Dialogues," will include essays by UAE-based writers, further contextualizing the exhibition through a local lens. 'Layered Medium: We Are In Open Circuits' runs through June 30 in Abu Dhabi. A second co-curated exhibition, 'Intense Proximities,' will follow in December at the SeMA, showcasing three generations of UAE-based artists from the 1980s to the present. In addition to the exhibitions, the SeMA–ADMAF collaboration includes co-commissioned artworks, artist residencies, performances and film screenings in both Abu Dhabi and Seoul.
Al Etihad
15-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Al Etihad
Abu Dhabi meets Seoul in avant-garde exhibition that shows human connections in tech evolution
15 May 2025 22:11 SARA AL ZAABI (ABU DHABI)South Korea's capital Seoul is bringing distinctive cultural narratives to Abu Dhabi in an avant-garde exhibition that traces how technology has shaped human connections - even before the internet "Layered Medium: We Are in Open Circuits - Contemporary Art from Korea, 1960s to Today", the exhibition opens today and runs until June 30 at Manarat Al Saadiyat. The art show, organised through collaboration between Abu Dhabi Music and Arts Foundation (ADMAF) and Seoul Museum of Art (SeMA), marks the first phase in a three-year institutional partnership between the UAE and South works by 29 artists will go on display in the exhibition that winds its way through six decades of Korea's avant-garde art, exploring ideas of identity, memory, tradition, and modernity. Drawn from SeMA's collection, the art show extracts themes that can "tell certain narratives of the development of experimental art and new media in Korea", curator Maya El Khalil told Aletihad . Presenting these Korean narratives in Abu Dhabi makes the exhibition even more interesting, El Khaili said, as the emirate is bound to have "a different reading" of these materials. Abu Dhabi and Seoul both have distinctive cultures but tying them together is a common approach to development. Both cities, El Khaili said, remain "rooted in the importance of tradition and identity" while embracing Kyung-hwan Yeo described the exhibition as a dialogue between Abu Dhabi and Seoul, exploring their cultural connections and differences."We tried to find a way to present the reason and the purpose, to ask authentic questions: Why do we need to explore similarities and differences? Do we face the same future or different futures?"Yeo added: "This exhibition wants to show and raise questions together. We are part of the communication, part of one family in a bigger perspective."This concept of "open circuits" represents communication as an ongoing, two-way exchange, El Khaili said. "We should be in a state of communication where the flow is not a one-way flow. It is like we are all part of this conversation." Social Ladders Explaining another common denominator for the two cultures, Yeo noted the shared artistic struggles of Emirati and Korean artists navigating tradition and modernity."It is exactly the same situation; how to combine the traditional and contemporary," she said. Byungjun Kwon's Dancing Ladders (2022 Reactivated: 2025), for example, challenges the notion of social ladders. It features metal contraptions moving along tracks laid down on the ground - showing some work in progress and "transmitted stress" from the old machinery to new robots. "Young people feel pressure to climb the social ladder… But this artwork transforms that hierarchy. The riders move horizontally, not vertically… a new way of thinking, a new way of living," Yeo said. "We are really complicated and layered - not fixed. We keep moving. And in this kind of movement, we can make a circuit and move together," she said.
CairoScene
12-05-2025
- Entertainment
- CairoScene
‘Layered Medium' Exhibit Brings Six Decades of Korean Art to Abu Dhabi
The Manarat Al Saadiyat exhibit runs until June 30th, marking the first major showcase of Korean contemporary art in the Gulf. May 11, 2025 Abu Dhabi's Manarat Al Saadiyat is set to host 'Layered Medium: We Are in Open Circuits', the first large-scale showcase of Korean contemporary art in the Gulf region. Running from May 16th to June 30th, 2025, the exhibit is a collaborative effort between the Abu Dhabi Music & Arts Foundation (ADMAF) and the Seoul Museum of Art (SeMA). Co-curated by SeMA's Kyung-hwan Yeo and independent curator Maya El Khalil, the exhibition features 48 works by 29 Korean artists, including pioneers like Nam June Paik and Park Hyunki, as well as contemporary figures such as Lee Bul, Haegue Yang, Ayoung Kim, and Moka Lee. The exhibition explores the evolution of Korea's avant-garde art scene over six decades, highlighting how artists have responded to social and technological changes. The exhibition's title, inspired by Nam June Paik's phrase 'We Are in Open Circuits,' reflects its focus on the medium as a system of communication. Visitors will encounter a diverse range of media, from early experiments in video and performance to immersive installations and digital simulations, offering insights into how media shapes perception, memory, and connection. Designed by the acclaimed studio Formafantasma, the exhibition space enhances the thematic exploration of media and communication. A dynamic public programme, including panel talks, screenings, and performances, will accompany the exhibition. Notably, on May 16th, a curatorial discussion featuring Kyung-hwan Yeo, Maya El Khalil, and artists Byungjun Kwon and Goen Choi will delve into the exhibition's conceptual framework. 'Layered Medium: We Are in Open Circuits' is open daily from 10:00 AM to 8:00 PM at Manarat Al Saadiyat. Admission is free, and further details about the public programme are available online.
Korea Herald
25-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Korea Herald
Upcoming Seoul Mediacity Biennale to delve into mysticism, occult
The Seoul Mediacity Biennale will return in August for its 25th anniversary, exploring how humans have become drawn to mysticism and the occult as alternatives to a rationalist society. The 13th edition of the biennale unveiled the theme 'Seance: Technology of the Spirit,' which will evolve around artworks drawing on occult, mystical and spiritual traditions, according to the Seoul Museum of Art (SeMA) on Monday. Helmed by artist and founder of e-flux Anton Vidokle, art historian and curator Hallie Ayres and curator of video and film at e-flux Lukas Brasiskis, the biennale will be held Aug. 26 to Nov. 23 at SeMA and venues across the city. The practice of the seance — an attempt to make contact with worlds beyond the living through a medium — flourished during the social transformations of the early modernist period. This led to an explosion of popular interest in spiritism, the occult, mysticism and syncretic religion as emotional and imaginative alternatives to the stress of a rationalist, industrial society, according to curators. 'These practices and ideas would come to influence the work of myriad vanguard artists,' the curators said. 'Key to their proposal is that these alternative 'technologies' contest the accelerationist and rationalistic logics of capitalist modernity, and might therefore help us to resist — and reconfigure — the political and intellectual structures that shape our experience,' the museum said in announcing the theme. The biennale was initiated in 2000 by the Seoul Metropolitan Government to explore 'contemporaneity and the changes of media in the city.' Each edition featured the works of some 50 participating artists and attracted around 140,000 visitors. SeMA acquired a total of 35 works presented at the biennale for its permanent collection.
