Ahead of its main exhibition this August, the 13th Seoul Mediacity Biennale is initiating international pre-events in Tokyo and Berlin. Titled Séance: Technology of Spirit, this year’s Biennale delves deeper into its core concepts by engaging international audiences through film screenings and symposia. The programs will be held on May 31 in Tokyo and June 16 in Berlin.
 
Focusing on the keywords “spirit,” “absence,” and “mediation,” the 2025 Biennale explores the artistic and spiritual possibilities of cinema. The sub-theme séance—typically referring to a ritual for summoning the spirits of the dead—is reinterpreted here as a contemporary gesture toward fleeting contact with the unseen and the incomprehensible.



Tokyo Program: Curatorial Symposium – Yanari: Shaking the House

In Tokyo, the Seoul Museum of Art will co-host a symposium with OIEE Curatorial Society under the title Yanari: Shaking the House. The event will bring together the Biennale’s artistic director, researchers, and curators to discuss the intersections of media, geopolitics, and exhibition-making.
 
Films screened alongside the symposium include Wreckage by Jane Jin Kaisen, Citizens of the Cosmos by Anton Vidokle, Ritual in Transfigured Time by Maya Deren, and performance video works by Shana Moulton.

Berlin Program: Interdisciplinary Symposium Co-hosted with ICI
 
On June 16, ICI (Independent Curators International) in Berlin will present a collaborative symposium featuring comparative literature scholar and media theorist Elena Vogman, and video artist Angela Melitopoulos. The program will explore how contemporary art and theory approach the theme of “spirit” through lenses of psychoanalysis, animism, and experimental media, accompanied by a curated screening of related video works.


 
Main Exhibition: A Multi-layered Expansion Linking Film, Exhibition, and the City
 
The main exhibition of the 13th Seoul Mediacity Biennale will run from August 26 to November 23, 2025, at the Seoul Museum of Art. A press conference and VIP preview are scheduled for August 25.
 
Expanding beyond the museum’s walls, the Biennale will extend into cinemas and urban venues across Seoul. A series of screenings, artist talks, and sessions will unfold its curatorial vision in multidimensional formats, connecting audiences to the Biennale’s conceptual framework.
 
ccording to the Seoul Museum of Art, “This year’s exhibition seeks to engage with invisible or marginalized presences through the cinematic medium. It explores how art can approach the human spirit and the ways in which such connections might be mediated in contemporary society.”