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Korea Herald
5 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
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.
