Seoul’s contemporary art scene enters a new dimension with the 13th Seoul Mediacity Biennale, titled Séance – Technology of the Spirit, now on view at the Seoul Museum of Art (SeMA) from August 26 to November 23, 2025. This large-scale exhibition explores how technology can serve as a conduit for spiritual, emotional, and ancestral communication in the digital age.

Since its founding in 2000, the Biennale has been a vital platform for artists working at the intersection of media, society, and technology. This year’s theme, Séance, reimagines the act of “calling forth” not just spirits but suppressed memories and unseen forces that shape modern life. The curatorial team, led by Christine Kim and Hyun-jung Park, invites audiences to reflect on what it means to connect beyond the visible world.

The exhibition features 49 artists and collectives from across the globe, including both historical and newly commissioned works. Highlights include Hiwa K’s You Won’t Feel a Thing, Anocha Suwichakornpong’s experimental film installation, and pieces by pioneering figures such as Nam June Paik and Lee Seung-taek. These works blend video, sound, performance, and installation, creating an atmosphere that oscillates between presence and absence, life and afterlife.

Unlike typical technology-centered art shows, Séance approaches digital media as a form of modern ritual, a way to remember, summon, and reimagine collective experience. The Biennale extends beyond SeMA’s main building into spaces like Nakwon Market and Art Cinema Seoul, transforming the city itself into a living network of signals and voices.

As Seoul continues to assert its position as a global art hub, Seoul Mediacity Biennale 2025 offers a unique synthesis of mysticism and technology. It reminds us that art, even in an age of algorithms, remains a bridge between the tangible and the unseen—between human spirit and the circuitry that now defines our world.

강지호 강남포스트 학생기자  webmaster@ignnews.kr

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