Ahead of its 10th anniversary in 2025, the National Asian Culture Center (ACC) will host an international symposium from October 24 to 25 as a pre-program for the special exhibition "Manifesto of Spring," which will take place in September next year. This symposium will provide an opportunity to share and discuss the discourse surrounding the exhibition.
 
This symposium features Anna Tsing, author of The Mushroom at the End of the World, who reflects on life’s possibilities amid the ruins of capitalism through the lens of the matsutake mushroom, and Jason W. Moore, a key figure in world-ecology theory, who coined the concept of the "Capitalocene" to complement the Anthropocene. Together, the ACC will examine the latest discourses on the Anthropocene and Capitalocene alongside new artistic approaches. In addition, partnering institutions ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe and M+ Museum, collaborators of “Manifesto of Spring,” will share their insights through a roundtable discussion on these critical themes.
 
Participants can register until 6 pm. on Tuesday, October 22, at the following link: Go to the Link

Day 1 : 10.24. (Thurs.)
Session 1 : Discovering Biodiversity at the End of the World
Keynote : Swamp Life — Anna Tsing (Anthropology, University of California, Santa Cruz; and Professor, Aarhus University) *Online
Speakers : Hwang Jooyoung (Ecofeminism research center 'Moon and Trees' researcher), Paul Seidler (Artist, terra0), Jieun Cho (Artist, ikkibawiKrrr)
 
Day 2 : 10.25. (Fri.)
Session 2 : Revealing the strategy of Capitalocene
Keynote : Democracy in the Web of Life: Against the Anthropocene of the Rich — Jason W. Moore (Professor, Dept. of Sociology, Binghamton University)
Speakers : Seo Dongjin (Associate Professor, Department of Intermedia Art, Kaywon University of Art and Design), Kim Hong Jung (Professor, Department of Sociology at Seoul National University), Soun-Gui Kim (Artist)
 
Session 3 : Art and Multispecies world-making (New World)
Speaker : Leonhard Bartolomeus (Curator,
YCAM / part of ruangrupa)
Roundtable : Kim Jiha (Senior Curator of ACC) Lim Liwon  (Curator of ACC), Silke Schmickl (CHANEL Lead Curator, Moving Image, M+ Museum), Alistair Hudson (Scientific Artistic Director of ZKM), Clara Runge (Curator of ZKM)

References

• 국립아시아문화전당 (National Asian Culture Center)

Ji Yeon Lee has been working as an editor for the media art and culture channel AliceOn since 2021 and worked as an exhibition coordinator at samuso (now Space for Contemporary Art) from 2021 to 2023.