Séance: Technology of the Spirit Catalogue

Seoul Museum of Art, Mediabus
The 13th Seoul Mediacity Biennale Séance: Technology of the Spirit Catalogue cover. Co-published by Seoul Museum of Art and Mediabus, 2025. Design: nonplace studio

This richly illustrated publication documents, contextualizes and expands upon the 13th Seoul Mediacity Biennale, Séance: Technology of the Spirit. Curated by Anton Vidokle, Hallie Ayres, and Lukas Brasiskis, explores the entanglement of art and spiritual practice from the dawn of modernity to the present, connecting the mystics and mediums who prefigured the emergence of modern and abstract art to contemporary artists from around the world. Across 650 pages, this bilingual English-Korean publication presents a map of that complex historical relationship. Eleven newly commissioned texts reflect on the influence of marginalized belief systems on the development of modern and contemporary art, collectively proposing an alternative to the prevailing formalist, social, or materialist accounts.

Table of Contents

Foreword

Curatorial Statement

Color Manifesto


Séance: Technology of the Spirit


Essays

“Death, Art, and Spirituality” Anton Vidokle

“Unreformed Images” Hallie Ayres

“Séance: Technology of Disalienation” Elena Vogman

“Princess Bari” Hwang Rushi

“What is the Opposite of an Epiphany? Notes at a Dawning” Johanna Hedva

“Cinema and Séance” Lukas Brasiskis

“On Oomoto” Alexandra Munroe in conversation with Anton Vidokle and Koichiro Osaka

“Angels and Demons” Daniel Muzyczuk

“Traces of Cosmos” Maria Lind

“Summoning the Beings of Metamorphosis” Namsee Kim

“Who Speaks During a Séance?” Nikolay Smirnov


Index

Today
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Yesterday
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The screen is worth protecting. Or create the value of protecting the screen.