Seoul Museum of Art (SeMA) has announced that Yung Ma will take up the role of artistic director for Seoul Mediacity Biennale 2020. Ma is currently curator of the Contemporary Art and Prospective Creation Department at the Centre Pompidou, recently organising Cao Fei’s solo exhibition HX (2019) at the Paris institution. From 2011 to 2016 Ma worked at Hong Kong’s M+ as associate curator of moving image, during which time he was responsible for developing the museum’s moving image collection. In 2009 and 2013 he also co-curated the Hong Kong Pavilion at Venice Biennale.
Seoul Mediacity Biennale was launched in 2000 with the idea of investigating the relationship between art, media and the urban context, and as next year’s edition marks its 20th anniversary, the director of SeMA Beck Jee-sook has said: ‘I hope this upcoming edition will open up a new chapter for the biennale to synchronise with the other global cities, transcending ideas of borders and time.’
Ma, who will continue to pursue his interest in all forms of moving image within his role as artistic director for the 11th edition of the biennale, has suggested that the next biennale will be based on a ‘multi-site, manifold and overlapping structure that aims to connect the biennale with the fabric of the city’. In a statement he said: ‘I’m truly excited and deeply honoured to have this opportunity to organise one of the major biennials in East Asia. I look forward to working closely with Director Beck and the SeMA team to realise the next edition, which I intend to explore the current media landscape in relation to our contemporary condition with a global perspective.’
Further details of Seoul Mediacity Biennale 2020 will be announced in the coming months.
6 August 2019
