Community
[Press Release] Sea Art Festival 2025 Announces Three Co-Artistic Directors
Read 55
관리자 2025-02-26 00:00
- Keumhwa Kim (Korea), Bernard Vienat (Switzerland), and Sara Kim (Korea) selected as co-artistic directors, following an international open call
- Sea Art Festival set to return to western Busan from September 27 to November 2, 2025, at Dadaepo Beach, Saha-gu, South Korea
 |
 |
 |
| (L-R): Keumhwa Kim (ⓒ Photographer: Tobias Kruse); Bernard Vienat (ⓒ Photographer: Isabelle Meister); Sara Kim (ⓒ Photographer: 최지원, CHOI JIWON (@studio.c_official)) | ||
14 March 2025 - The Busan Biennale Organizing Committee announces the selection of three curators to lead Sea Art Festival 2025. For the first time in the history of the Sea Art Festival, three co-artistic directors have been appointed: Keumhwa Kim, Bernard Vienat, and Sara Kim. The three curators, who are all active internationally, applied together as one team for the international open call held in December last year. Under their leadership, Sea Art Festival 2025 will take place for 37 days, from September 27 to November 2, around Dadaepo Beach, located in Saha-gu, Busan South Korea.
The trio of artistic directors bring a breadth of knowledge to this year’s festival, having combined experience across multiple geographies in Korea, Germany and Switzerland. Each brings a unique perspective from their diverse backgrounds and are united by their commitment to ecological awareness in the arts. Now at the helm of Sea Art Festival 2025, an outdoor event taking place on the picturesque shores of Busan, their robust knowledge of the relationship between art and nature aligns seamlessly with the festival’s core mission.
Sea Art Festival Returns to the Shores of Busan
Since its inception in 1987, Sea Art Festival has utilized some of Busan’s most iconic beaches, including Haeundae, Gwangalli, Songdo, and Dadaepo. Recognized as Korea’s leading outdoor exhibition, and highlighting Busan’s unique geographical characteristics, the festival was held around Ilgwang Beach in Gijang in 2021 and 2023, expanding its spaces and artistic genres while also exploring diverse marine ecological issues. Additionally, close collaboration with fishing communities has balanced artistic quality and public appeal through successful exhibitions, drawing significant attention domestically and internationally. This year, the Organizing Committee has announced plans to return to Dadaepo Beach, also the location for the Festival in 2019.
About Sea Art Festival
First held in 1987 as one of the cultural pre-events ahead of the 1988 Seoul Olympics, the Sea Art Festival has taken place ever since then as one of Busan’s premier art celebrations. Staged in a unique format against the backdrop of Busan’s natural seaside environment, the Sea Art Festival has sought to bring the public closer to art by using contemporary art to reinterpret the sea into a new artistic setting. In addition to the world-renowned tourist destinations in and around Busan, most notably the beaches at Haeundae and Gwangalli, the Busan Biennale Organizing Committee has contributed to expanding artistic access and achieving balanced development in Busan by holding the Sea Art Festival at the beaches of Songdo and Dadaepo in the relatively culturally underserved western part of the city. Boasting almost 40 years of history, the Sea Art Festival is poised to continue reinterpreting Busan’s seaside as an artistic space that contributes to the popularization of contemporary art, sharing with as many people as possible all of the stirring and
joyful moments that art affords us.
First held in 1987 as one of the cultural pre-events ahead of the 1988 Seoul Olympics, the Sea Art Festival has taken place ever since then as one of Busan’s premier art celebrations. Staged in a unique format against the backdrop of Busan’s natural seaside environment, the Sea Art Festival has sought to bring the public closer to art by using contemporary art to reinterpret the sea into a new artistic setting. In addition to the world-renowned tourist destinations in and around Busan, most notably the beaches at Haeundae and Gwangalli, the Busan Biennale Organizing Committee has contributed to expanding artistic access and achieving balanced development in Busan by holding the Sea Art Festival at the beaches of Songdo and Dadaepo in the relatively culturally underserved western part of the city. Boasting almost 40 years of history, the Sea Art Festival is poised to continue reinterpreting Busan’s seaside as an artistic space that contributes to the popularization of contemporary art, sharing with as many people as possible all of the stirring and
joyful moments that art affords us.
About The Curators
Keumhwa Kim earned her master’s degree in art history from Technische Universität Berlin and currently works between Korea and Germany. As the founder and director of Keum Art Projects, she focuses on integrating art within non-traditional spaces from a post-Anthropocene perspective. Her research centers on the relationship between art, ecosystems and postcolonial history. Her curatorial projects like Das Dritte Land, Terrestrial Assemblage, Speaking to Ancestors, (Un)Folding Bottari – Kimsooja, among others - have been prominently showcased in various institutions and public spaces across Germany. In collaboration with Gyeonggi Creation Campus, she curated the international symposium Re-Covering Getbol as Hybrid Landscapes at the Gyeonggi Museum of Modern Art in 2024. In addition, she serves as a board member of Art4Biodiversity, an international nonprofit organization that helps foster ecological awareness among artists and curators.
Keumhwa Kim earned her master’s degree in art history from Technische Universität Berlin and currently works between Korea and Germany. As the founder and director of Keum Art Projects, she focuses on integrating art within non-traditional spaces from a post-Anthropocene perspective. Her research centers on the relationship between art, ecosystems and postcolonial history. Her curatorial projects like Das Dritte Land, Terrestrial Assemblage, Speaking to Ancestors, (Un)Folding Bottari – Kimsooja, among others - have been prominently showcased in various institutions and public spaces across Germany. In collaboration with Gyeonggi Creation Campus, she curated the international symposium Re-Covering Getbol as Hybrid Landscapes at the Gyeonggi Museum of Modern Art in 2024. In addition, she serves as a board member of Art4Biodiversity, an international nonprofit organization that helps foster ecological awareness among artists and curators.
Bernard Vienat, a Swiss national who also serves as a board member on Art4Biodiversity, earned his master’s degree in curatorial studies from the Städelschule at Goethe University. His research explores developments at the intersection of art, science, and geopolitics. In 2012, he founded art-werk, a nonprofit association aimed at promoting art dedicated to contemporary social and environmental issues. Since 2021, he has been leading an art and urban nature biennial called (re)connecting.earth that has toured various European cities over the last four years, including Geneva, Dessau, and Kiel. This project aims to reflect humanity’s perception of living organisms and to raise awareness about forming new relationships with nature.
Sara Kim, acclaimed for successfully curating the on-site project Nowhere, Now Here at the 4th Seoul Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism, is a dynamic young architect actively working in Korea. With a diverse background encompassing art, design, and architecture, she leads the multidisciplinary architecture studio Diagonal Thoughts as its founder and principal. Kim has won several invited competitions for pavilion projects at major museums and has showcased her work as an artist in exhibitions at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MMCA), the ARKO Art Center, and the Busan Museum of Art.