Film, sound, and theater programs for 13th edition

Seoul Museum of Art announces the film, sound, and theater programs in the 2025 edition of the Biennale, titled Séance: Technology of the Spirit.

The 13th Seoul Mediacity Biennale, Séance: Technology of the Spirit, explores how film, sound, and performance can summon other realms—psychic, ancestral, and imaginary—through shared acts of attention.

Much like a séance, cinema is a ritual of collective dreaming: an audience gathers in darkness to encounter images, voices, and presences that transcend the everyday. Two major film programs will explore cinema’s spiritual and visionary dimensions, inviting viewers into a space where projected shadows feel as tangible as memory or experience.

Sound, too, has long served as a conduit to the invisible—linking listeners with the divine, the dead, or the more-than-human. Inspired by Pauline Oliveros’s practice of “deep listening,” a dedicated Sound Room curated by Sanna Almajedi will feature sound art and experimental music that probes the porous boundaries between inner and outer worlds. 

Performance becomes a site of transformation in The New Genius Experience of The Great Atomic Bombreflector (2025), a theatrical sci-fi ritual by ORTA (Alexandra Morozova and Rustem Begenov) that merges mysticism, science fiction, and embodied participation.

Film program at Cinematheque Seoul Art Cinema
Co-hosted by Cinematheque Seoul Art Cinema, the film program comprises fifteen screenings unfolding in four thematic chapters: Speaking with the Dead, Ancestors Breathing, Psyche and the Screen, and Everyday Mysticism.

Drawing on Pasolini’s sense of the sacred in daily life and Maya Deren’s vision of film as ritual, the program features work by Abbas Kiarostami, Alice Rohrwacher, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Camilo Restrepo, Caroline Déodat, Go Takamine, Jean-Luc Godard, Ken McMullen, Lee Jang-ho, Luis Buñuel, Marcel Camus, Mati Diop, Maya Deren, Naomi Kawase, Nina Menkes, Pedro Costa, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Raúl Ruiz, Roberto Rossellini, Souleymane Cissé, and Trinh T. Minh-ha.

Sound Room at NAKWON SANGGA
Located in the historic NAKWON SANGGA, the Sound Room presents music as a portal to invisible dimensions. Featuring artists such as Aki Onda, Annea Lockwood, Antonina Nowacka, Areum Lee, Carl Michael von Hausswolff, Jerry Hunt, Jocy de Oliveira, Laurie Spiegel, Li Chin Sung (Dickson Dee), Matana Roberts, Walter Smetak, and Yara Mekawei, the program explores sonic transmissions from the unconscious, the dead, and the beyond.

Experimental Theater at Seoul Artists' Platform_New&Young (SAPY)
In partnership with Seoul Artists’ Platform_New&Young, the Biennale presents The New Genius Experience of The Great Atomic Bombreflector (2025), a commissioned work by ORTA (Alexandra Morozova and Rustem Begenov). Inspired by Kazakhstani visionary Sergey Kalmykov, the performance combines Kalmykov’s texts, Zhuangzi’s philosophy, and atomic test survivors’ testimonies into a multi-phase ritual of transformation, staged in an immersive environment built from 15,000 aluminum containers.

Led by Alexandra Morozova and a Seoul-based research team, the audience becomes part of a collective experiment to create a speculative invention: the Great Atomic Bombreflector.

Frieze Film Seoul 2025 on the SeMA Rooftop
During the opening week of September, the Biennale partners with Frieze for a rooftop screening series at the Seoul Museum of Art. Organized into four chapters—Harmony, Reclaiming, Communion, and Waking Dreams—the program focuses on films where spiritual and mystical energies alter perceptions of daily life. Screenings will include curatorial introductions and rooftop receptions on the opening day.

With: Amit Dutta, Angela Su, Anocha Suwichakornpong, Hsu Chia-Wei, Colectivo Los Ingrávidos, Jane Jin Kaisen, Joachim Koester, Karrabing Film Collective, Laura Huertas Millán, Sky Hopinka, Tamar Guimarães and Kasper Akhøj, Zheng Yuan

More information Full program details, ticketing, and participating artist lists for Séance: Technology of the Spirit will be announced shortly. Please visit the Biennale’s website for updates.

Séance: Technology of the Spirit, the 13th Seoul Mediacity Biennale, will be on view to the public at Seoul Museum of Art from August 26 to November 23, 2025. A press and professional preview day will take place on August 25.

Further details of the 13th Seoul Mediacity Biennale will be announced in the coming months through SMB website.