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The K-Arts Takes a Major Role in the 2020 Ars Electronica Festival

The Korea National University of Arts (K-ARTS) organizes the Ars Electronica Garden Seoul as the only participant from Seoul in the Ars Electronica Festival 2020 (Ars Festival). The Ars Festival is the worldwide largest media art festival that showcases performances and exhibitions integrating cutting-edge technology.

The festival annually takes place in Linz, Austria in September. Celebrating its 41^st anniversary this year, the Ars Festival breaks away from its usual style and presents an unprecedented festival due to the COVID-19 situation. If more than 120 participating organizations host the individual festivals in their areas on the common theme “garden,” the Ars Festival will collect and introduces them on the world wide web, borrowing the style of a travel agency. In this respect, it indeed is a hybrid festival that connects on-site events from around the world into one. For the festival, the K-ARTS prepared the Ars Electronica Garden and various intriguing programs on the theme of “Garden of Third Life.” The program presumes Seoul as a “garden,” the whole of nature, society, and technology. From there, it questions and traces how human beings will take care of this garden in the future of “Third Life” where the reality and virtual overlap.

The K-ARTS also presents a featured media art content, “Two Hands.” The work blurs the lines among the reality, spirit, arts, and science by combining the shamanic music with the advanced projection mapping technique and creates a new form of artwork. The musical ensemble of the traditional oral music presented with the modern electronic iron string sound combined with electronic contrabass at the Jindo Purification Rite or the Hahoe Mask Dance Drama highlights the event.

Professor Yu Kyunghwa, art director of the performance, said, “From the rituals, we can tell that the Korean shamanism considers all the deceased as gods. I wish our performance could give comfort to those around the world who suffer from or lost their loved ones by the coronavirus pandemic.”

The Ars Electronica Garden Seoul consists of two mini-programs titled ON-Line and OFF-Line programs. The ON-Line program offers the followings: (1) a series of lectures by artists, researchers, and scientists who gave their thoughts on the relationship between science, technology, and human-being (2) a media art performance, “Two Hands” (3) a mobile-based AR exhibition “Garden of Third Life” (4) a 3D archiving space “Seoul Garden” that explores the Seoul city from the perspective of a stranger, and lastly, (5) the “Web Gardening” workshop that teaches how to create an artwork in the web-based environment. The K-ARTS also participated in a webinar and debated on the topic “Ecology” with twenty other participating organizations.

Ars Electronica curator Martin Honzik commented, “I think the theme the K-ARTS presents through ‘Third Life’ is truly interesting metaphorical while it brings us from the present to the future.” He added, “It displays various aspects of Seoul that embraces both its long history and advanced technology.

The details of the Ars Electronica Garden Seoul are available on the K-ARTS Art Collider official website (www.artcollider.kr/garden-of-third-life).