Back to Dadaepo... 2025 Sea Art Festival Kicks Off for 37 Days

September 27 - November 2: "Undercurrents: Waves Walking on Water"
Held at Dadaepo Beach for the first time in six years since 2019

The Sea Art Festival will unfold in the city by the sea. This year, it returns to Dadaepo.

The city of Busan and the Busan Biennale Organizing Committee announced on September 26 that the "2025 Sea Art Festival" will be held for 37 days from September 27 to November 2. First launched in 1987, the Sea Art Festival is a unique event that utilizes the open space of the sea as its exhibition venue, a rarity even on the global stage.

This year's exhibition theme is "Undercurrents: Waves Walking on Water," which explores relationships with unseen or marginalized existences and reflects on the meaning of coexistence and survival through the flows and ecological rhythms beneath the surface.

Returning to Dadaepo for the first time in six years, this year's Sea Art Festival will newly utilize idle spaces such as Dadaepo Beach, Gouni Ecological Trail, Molundae Coastal Walkway, the former Dadae Incineration Plant, and the former Molun Caf?. At Dadaepo Beach, the scenery at the boundary where river and sea meet will be interpreted in polyphonic language, while the Gouni Ecological Trail has been created as a space for reflecting on relationships with nature.

The Molundae Coastal Walkway will feature works that combine local traditional labor songs with underwater sounds. In addition, the former Dadae Incineration Plant will serve as an exhibition space themed around the climate crisis and collective solidarity, while the former Molun Caf? has been transformed into a venue for citizen exchange through sensory artworks.

The exhibition is co-curated by directors Kim Geumhwa and Berna Pina, with 38 artists from 23 teams representing 17 countries presenting a total of 46 works. Participating Korean artists include Kim Sangdon, Lee Jin, Cho Hyungseop, the Omija team, and Jibui Lee & Philip Reiner, as well as Choi Wongyo, winner of the first Emerging Artists Art Show last year. International participants include Plastique Fantastique, Raul Walchi, Seba Calfuqueo, and Biron Erol Bert, among others.

During the exhibition period, a variety of related programs will take place, including children's workshops, discussions linked to the artworks, and performances. There will also be citizen-participatory experiential programs and a performance called "Silver Boom" with women aged 60 and above, as well as interdisciplinary events such as lectures by leading scholars on the Anthropocene. Admission is free, though some programs require advance registration.

Park Hyungjoon, mayor of Busan, stated, "Through this Sea Art Festival, we aim to highlight the charm of Dadaepo and Busan's status as an international cultural city," adding, "We will continue to support its development into a world-class exhibition representing not only Busan but also Korea."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.