Main design of Sea Art Festival 2025 ©Busan Biennale Organizing Committee
The Busan Biennale Organizing Committee has
announced that the Sea Art Festival 2025 will take place under the theme 《Undercurrents: Waves Walking on the Water》
at Dadaepo Beach and its surrounding areas from September 27 to November 2,
spanning a total of 37 days.
The keyword “waves” in this year’s theme is
inspired by the unique topography and ecology of Dadaepo Beach in Busan, where
the Nakdong River Estuary meets the South Sea. The exhibition’s title,
"Undercurrents: Waves Walking on the Water," was finalized to
poetically personify waves, thereby deepening the exploration of delicate
interactions between human and non-human entities.
For the first time in its history, the 2025
edition of the Sea Art Festival will be directed by a team of three co-artistic
directors: Keumhwa Kim, Bernard Vienat, and Sara Kim. Through a
multidisciplinary lens encompassing art, ecology, and architecture, the
exhibition aims to reinterpret the ecological landscape of Dadaepo and present
a site-specific exhibition that offers immersive and sensory experiences.
Dadaepo Beach, the site of the upcoming Sea Art Festival 2025 ©Sara Kim
The Committee stated, “This exhibition seeks to go beyond the mere experience of viewing artworks. It aims to explore how the ecological rhythms and metabolic processes of the ocean’s undercurrents permeate and interact with the everyday lives of local culture, tourism, and coastal communities. It challenges our perception, which has long been accustomed to seeing only the surface of the sea.”
Exhibition view of Sea Art Festival
2023 ©Busan Biennale Organizing Committee
On June 19, the Busan Biennale Organizing
Committee officially announced the theme and main visual identity of the Sea
Art Festival 2025, marking the beginning of full-scale preparations for the
exhibition. In addition, the committee will launch online content ahead of the
opening to offer a behind-the-scenes look into the curatorial direction and
development process.
The upcoming content will take the form of
a talk, with the exhibition directors themselves discussing the theme and
intentions behind the Sea Art Festival 2025. Designed to be accessible and
engaging, the talk will revolve around key concepts of the exhibition, helping
audiences better understand and build anticipation for the event.
The video will also include a sneak peek at
some of the participating artists’ works, sparking further curiosity about the
exhibition. The content will be released through the official YouTube channel
of the Busan Biennale (https://www.youtube.com/@bsbiennale).
The full list of participating artists and
details of exhibition-related programs will be announced gradually.
