Irini Papadimitriou appointed artistic director of Seoul Mediacity Biennale

[Financial News] Contemporary art curator Irini Papadimitriou, who has explored the social impact of art and technology, will lead next year’s 14th Seoul Mediacity Biennale. Under the theme “Machines of Repair,” the biennale will examine the relationship between technology and power.
According to the Seoul Museum of Art on the 23rd, Papadimitriou was selected after document and interview evaluations in the third international open call for an artistic director. A total of 117 people submitted 70 proposals, individually or as teams.
Jury chair Namhee Park, director of the Nam June Paik Art Center, highly praised the proposal’s approach of addressing issues surrounding artificial intelligence (AI) through exhibitions, as well as its potential to expand the theme in the context of Seoul.
Papadimitriou has served as digital program manager at the UK’s Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) and creative director at FutureEverything, among other roles. She is currently exhibition director at Diriyah Art Futures in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. She also served as artistic director of the Busan Sea Art Festival in 2023.
The 2023 Science Gallery London exhibition “AI: Who’s Looking After Me?”, which she helped curate, explored AI in healthcare, the justice system and pet care. It asked who benefits from AI and who bears its burdens.
Opening next August, the biennale will ask what values and purposes scientific and technological advances should serve. Through artworks and public programs, it will examine how technology shapes society and the future.
Papadimitriou said, “Technological innovation today is often driven by conquest, resource extraction, surveillance and control,” adding that she would explore how technology could be used as a foundation for realizing public values.
The Seoul Mediacity Biennale began with the 1996 exhibition “City and Images.” Drawing on Seoul’s urban character and the changing media landscape, it has explored the experimental and public dimensions of contemporary art.
In November, the Seoul Museum of Art will hold Pre-Biennale II, a forum-format pre-program, to share key concepts and curatorial plans. The program’s theme, participants and application details will be announced in stages on the biennale’s official website.

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