The Seoul Museum of Art (SeMA) will host a pre-biennale program titled "Notes for a Séance” on November 30 at SeMA Hall, introducing the curatorial direction and concept of the 13th Seoul Mediacity Biennale. This program will present the theme of the biennale alongside the key ideas shaping the curatorial vision of the Artistic Director team— Anton Vidokle, Hallie Ayres, and Lukas Brasiskis.

The Artistic Director team proposes the concept of the biennale as a "séance," emphasizing the relationship between a wakeful life and the world beyond humanity. To this end, they are exploring the historical intersections of art, society, and spirituality, focusing on works and practices at the crossroads of technology and mystical traditions. 

The program will feature presentations by the Artistic Director team on the biennale and include screenings of works corresponding to the subthemes.

Part 1. Death, Art, and Spirituality

Anton Vidokle will speak to the centrality of death and the pursuit of immortality in mystical and spiritual practices throughout history, and the impact this has made on the development, iconography, and language of art. The presentation will focus on how the relationship between the living and the dead in mystical traditions has shaped key aspects of spiritualism and esoteric philosophies, and how these ideas, in turn, transformed the arts during modernity and into the present.

The screening program will include Kenneth Anger’s short film Death, which explores themes of death and dreams; Yin-Ju Chen’s Somewhere Beyond Right and Wrong, There is a Garden. I Will Meet You There, which reflects on death and depicts a process of healing and meditation to overcome pain; and Gilgamesh: She Who Saw the Deep by Pelin Tan and Anton Vidokle, a meditation on life and death, friendship and love, and immortality.

Part 2. Mediating the Invisible: Spiritual, Cinematic, and Psychoanalytical Séances

Lukas Brasiskis will explore three different meanings of the concept of the séance–spiritual séance, cinematic séance, and psychoanalytical séance–widely practiced in the West at the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth centuries, exploring their complex backgrounds and the different forms of séance.

Also included in the screening program are Maya Deren's experimental silent film Ritual in Transfigured Time, which explores the fear of rejection caused by abandoned rituals and the autonomy of expression; Jordan Belson’s Samadhi, which discusses his research and practice in yoga and Tibetan Buddhism; and Bruce Conner’s psychedelic journey film Looking for Mushrooms.

Part 3. Contemporary Techno-Mysticism and its Discontents

Hallie Ayres will examine the relationship between contemporary technology, spirituality, and the automation of the mind. Analyzing how post-Fordist capitalism has shifted from the automation of the body to the automation of the mind and spirit, Ayres illuminates how this transition marks a significant change in how technology shapes not only labor but also consciousness, spirituality, and cultural relativism.

The screening program will also feature Shigeko Kubota’s surreal video diary work Video Girls and Video Songs for Navajo Sky, and Shana Moulton’s MindPlace ThoughtStream, which weaves feminist implications through surrealist imagery and sound to explore the nuances of contemporary consciousness.

The program can be reserved on the Official Website of the 13th Seoul Mediacity Biennale. Additionally, detailed information about the Biennale and participating artists will be announced sequentially starting in 2025.

References

• 서울시립미술관 보도자료 (Seoul Museum of Art Press Release)
• 서울미디어시티비엔날레, 제13회 사전프로그램 ll – 강령을 위한 노트

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.