A Million Silver Bamboo: The Rain We Share

Hosted by Ewha Womans University and organised by the College of Art and Design, EMAP (Ewha Media Art Presentation) returns in 2026 as a five-day outdoor moving-image edition across the university campus. Founded in 2001 in the spirit of honouring the legacy of Nam June Paik, who served as a distinguished professor at Ewha, EMAP has developed over two decades into a public platform for experimental, digital, and archival moving image works. The 2026 edition is especially significant as it marks the university’s 140th anniversary and the 20th anniversary of Paik’s passing.

Titled A Million Silver Bamboo: The Rain We Share, EMAP 2026 brings together forty artists and collectives working across different geographies and generations. It reflects on a theme evolved from Maritime Imaginary in the Age of Climate Emergency, an international conference organised by the College of Art and Design the previous year, extending its inquiry into the poetic and ecological dimensions of water. “A million silver bamboo” draws on a classical image of “silver bamboo,” describing the vertical lines of heavy rain falling through the sky. The title gestures toward a shared planetary condition in which intensifying hydrological volatility has become one of the defining challenges of our time. 

EMAP 2026 is prepared under the overall direction of Moon Kyungwon (artist; Dean of Ewha’s College of Art and Design), with advisory support from Frances Morris CBE (former Director, Tate Modern). The edition is co-curated by Sungah Serena Choo, Sooyoung Leam, and John Kenneth Paranada.

Alongside this year’s edition of EMAP, Nam June Paik: Ecologist of the Videosphere, a special exhibition curated by Nam June Paik Art Center will be presented in collaboration with Ewha College of Art and Design.

Participating artists include Ana Alenso, Au Sow Yee, Poulomi Basu & CJ Clarke, Jungki Beak, Oliver Beer, Matthew Benington, Rotter Su & Katherine Hammond, Marcel Broodthaers, Moojin Brothers, Heidi Bucher, Pom Bunsermvicha, Seo Young Chang, Julian Charrière, Marcus Coates, Jon Cuyson, Uri Han, Ramin Haerizadeh, Rokni Haerizadeh & Hesam Rahmanian, Bokyung Jun, Yuki Kihara, Daum Kim, Josh Kline, Shigeko Kubota, Sojin Kwak, Lap-See Lam, Jade Sujin Lee, Angelica Mesiti, Manny Montelibano, MOON Kyungwon & JEON Joon, Peter Nestler, Maria Estela Paiso, Nam June Paik & Jud Yalkut, Abi Palmer, Minha Park, Shahana Rajani, Yo-E Ryou, Shen Xin, Tong Wenmin, Derek Tumala, Nicolás García Uriburu, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Solin Yoon.