Today, Frieze announced the full slate of programming at Frieze Seoul 2024, featuring new partnerships and expanding existing ones to create the fair’s most comprehensive offering yet.
The program will be broad in scope – spanning live performance, time-based media and a talks series – and geography, interspersed throughout the city. Activations will take place in the fair, throughout COEX and in some of Seoul’s most vibrant neighborhoods.
Following the enthusiastic celebration of the city’s creative communities at the first two editions of Frieze Seoul, and with concurrent biennials in Busan and Gwangju this year, we are excited for what September has in store. We extend our gratitude to both our new and returning collaborators, with whom we are proudly showcasing a line-up of Korean artists, international thought leaders and local non-profits. This fall, the expansive programming at Frieze Seoul is set to highlight the vibrancy and momentum of Korea’s contemporary art scene.
Pat Lee (Director, Frieze Seoul)
Frieze LIVE
New this year, the fair will launch Frieze LIVE in Seoul with an inaugural edition titled ?·?(??): Nerve or
Divine Pathway, curated by Je Yun Moon (Project Director, Art Sonje Center). This initiative will run at
COEX throughout the duration of the fair and feature five performances by seven artists exploring the
potential of poetry as a medium for performance art.
Each performance will explore how movement, sound and visual elements can extend poetic expression,
transforming the human body into a language and poetry into a multisensory experience. Highlights include:
Cha Yeonså’s reinterpretation of Buddhist rituals offering solace to both the deceased and the living, inspired by Eon Hee Kim’s poetry;
Jesse Chun’s exploration of non-linear language blended with traditional Korean folk dance;
Hong Ji Young’s collective examination of the human body as a canvas for intimacy and Vulnerability;
Jang Sumi’s participatory performance exploring the intricacies of social networks;
Kim Wonyoung & Project YYIN (Rha Sinae, Choi Kisub)’s reinterpretation of Yvonne Rainer’s Trio A (1968) performed in wheelchairs.
Together, these performances will blur the boundaries between body and language, image and action, emotion and reason, while demonstrating the synergy between poetry and performance. Frieze LIVE is presented in partnership with DYAD, a private members’ club that will launch in the heart of Cheongdam in 2025.
EMAP x Frieze Film 2024
Curated by Joowon Park (Curator, National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art) and Valentine
Umansky (Curator, Tate Modern), this year’s program will unite time-based media works from over 20
international artists. Jointly presented with outdoor media art festival EMAP (Ewha Media Art Presentation), the program will take place in Ewha Womans University’s historic gardens and at its contemporary Ewha Campus Complex from September 2nd – 6th. Audiences can also join remotely on frieze.com.
Under the title All that Weaves the Universe: A Question of Quantum Entanglements, the program will
employ both age-old and brand-new concepts – weaving and quantum physics – to reflect on the
interconnectedness of the human and non-human. EMAP x Frieze Film 2024 will bridge ancient wisdom and modern science, offering insights through bodily, technological and spiritual perspectives. Featured artists include Gabriel Abrantes, Vitória Cribb, Léuli Eshraghi, Ana Mendieta, Alison Nguyen, Tabita Rezaire, Simon Speiser, Yuyan Wang, Clemens von Wedemeyer and Zhang Xu Zhan.
Frieze Talks in Association with Kiaf SEOUL and KAMS
Running from September 5 – 7 at Studio 159 in COEX, this annual series, in collaboration with Kiaf SEOUL and KAMS, will address the most pressing issues in the art world today. Topics include the power of biennials to shape the contemporary art scene and its market, the role of feminism in Asian art and the evolving role of curators in the gallery context. Speakers will include:
Myung Ji Bae (Curator, MMCA), Josh Baer (CEO, Baerfaxt), Diana Campbell (Artistic Director, Samdani Art Foundation; Chief Curator, Dhaka Art Summit), Cho Jieun of ikkibawiKrrr (Artist), Kang Seung Lee (Artist), Clara M Kim (Chief Curator & Director of Curatorial Affairs, MOCA), Kim Hong-hee (Chairperson, Nam June Paik Cultural Foundation), Vera Mey and Philippe Pirotte (Co-artistic Directors, Busan Biennale 2024), Zeynep Öz (Curator, Sharjah Biennial 16), Pablo José Ramírez (Curator, Hammer Museum), Patrick Sun (Founder, Sunpride Foundation), Victoria Sung (Phyllis C. Wattis Senior Curator, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive), Lumi Tan (Curator) and Koki Tanaka (Artist)
Non-Profits in Collaboration with ARKO
To celebrate the vibrancy of Seoul’s art scene, Frieze will collaborate for the second year with ARKO to
support a series of activations by 16 non-profit spaces on Thursday, September 7th, creating an international networking platform for artists, curators and organizers. With Korea’s two biennials coinciding with Frieze Seoul 2024, the highlighted spaces expand beyond Seoul and will include non-profits from Gwangju and Busan.
Frieze Seoul 2024, 4th Sept – 7th Sept 2024 COEX frieze.com/fairs/seoul
An online map published by ARKO will also provide a comprehensive overview of alternative and non-profit art spaces in Korea.
