Seoul Mediacity Biennale 2018

Opening: September 5

Introduction: Seoul Mediacity Biennale 2018
Celebrating its 10th edition this year, Seoul Mediacity Biennale (originally known as SeMA Biennale Mediacity Seoul) will be held for 74 days from Thursday, September 6, 2018 to Sunday, November, 18, 2018. Hosted by the Seoul Metropolitan Government and organized by SeMA, Seoul Mediacity Biennale is the major art event in Seoul, with a focus on various forms of art that reflect the city’s regional characteristics and expand the concept of media. In this year’s Biennale, SeMA’s shifting and experimenting its structure from the appointed directorship on each edition to a collective curatorship in collaboration with the museum’s curatorial department. The “Collectives” who are experts from diverse fields of arts and science in Korea are invited in the hope of creating the art biennale as a multiplex intellectual platform and rebranding itself as a cultural destination. By promoting exchanges and communication among various fields including art, economics, environment, politics, social science, etc., the event aims to open up new opportunities for change within the society and increase public access to cultural arts by providing an open space for citizens and international viewers.

The “Collective”
The Collective is now creating a venture of biennale experiment as taking its close cooperation and on-going discussion between its members as the process itself to engage with the public in the future. The following six members of the Collective were selected on the basis of recommendations of the Seoul Museum of Art and decisions made by the selection committee: Nam Soo Kim, Dance Critic; Jang Un Kim, Independent Curator; Kyung Yong Lim, Director of The Book Society; Daul Jang, Climate & Energy Team Leader of Greenpeace; Hyo-Joon Choi, Director of Seoul Museum of Art; and Gibin Hong, Director of Global Political Economy Institute.

The abovementioned Seoul Mediacity Biennale Collective was established to promote active collaboration among researchers and planners of various fields, and thereby share expertise and expand network. With this structure, the event strives to address the fundamental question—what new values must humanity foster amid the anxiety and uncertainty that pervade today’s society? It also strives to determine the social role and function of art not as an exclusive property of a specific minority class, but as a medium for communication based on the exchanges and consilience of contemporary art. Accordingly, Seoul Mediacity Biennale aims to re-interpret contemporary life through multidisciplinary collaboration and identify creative and future-oriented alternative values presented by various individuals and groups, with regard to the theme, “Noch Nicht (Not yet), but already noticeable.