The Busan Museum of Art will host Asia’s first digital media art festival, "Loop Lab Busan," for approximately two months, from April 22 to June.

Loop Lab Busan was initiated through a partnership formed last year between the Busan Museum of Art, Spanish cultural institutions Casa Asia and LOOP Barcelona. This festival presents a time-based digital media art platform that envisions a future where technology and ecology converge. It is the first alternative event in Asia that experiments with horizontal solidarity within communities.

The festival will feature an art fair, exhibitions, and forums focusing on digital media art. The art fair, set to take place from April 24 to 26 at Grand Josun Busan, will be divided into a gallery section and an artist fair. It will invite experimental exhibition institutions and galleries from Korea and abroad, offering a unique space to showcase digital media artworks.

The exhibition program will take place from April to June, with around 20 public museums, private museums, alternative spaces, and galleries across Busan coming together to simultaneously host digital media art exhibitions.

The exhibitions will showcase a diverse range of contemporary digital media art, including digital video, media installations, virtual reality (VR), performances, and AI-based new media art. At the Busan Museum of Art, a special exhibition for “Digital Subculture” will be presented in the outdoor sculpture garden.

In addition, several thematic forums will be held. “The Future Museum Forum” will explore new social roles and functions of art, while the “Art & Capital Forum” will discuss art finance and the real economy of the art market. “The Asia Curators Forum” will focus on contemporary Asian cultural identity.

The “Future Museum Forum” will take place from April 22 to 23, bringing together around 15 of the most pioneering future-oriented museums, including Spain’s MACBA, Taiwan’s C-LAb, France’s Pompidou Media Lab, and Australia’s ACMI. This forum will explore new social roles of art, discuss international standardization of digital artwork preservation techniques, and seek ways to establish a shared archival platform for digital collections among institutions. 

The “Art & Capital Forum,” held from April 24 to 25, will be an interdisciplinary research forum featuring artists, financial experts, and digital specialists. It will serve as a platform for discussions on discourse and policies that drive the newly emerging cultural economy market. 

The “Asia Curators Forum,” running from April 24 to 26, will bring together established and emerging curators from 11 Asian countries. Through collaborative research, the forum will facilitate exhibitions, screenings, and artist talks to examine the current state of Asian video art.

Suh Jin Suk, Director of the Busan Museum of Art, stated, “Loop Lab Busan challenges the boundaries between pop culture and contemporary art, as well as between commercial and non-commercial spheres, while aiming to establish a multidimensional artistic ecosystem through collaboration and shared experiences.” He emphasized, “Through this initiative, visitors will be able to explore new artistic possibilities that serve as alternatives to mainstream 20th-century art.”

For more details on participation and event information, visit the Loop Lab Busan official website: https://looplabbusan.com/.

References

• 루프 랩 부산 (Loop Lab Busan)
• 부산시 보도자료 (Busan Metropolitan City Press Release)