Home > Culture > Arts & Design

New media art takes center stage at Seo-Seoul Museum of Art opening

Published: 12 Mar. 2026, 14:48 Updated: 12 Mar. 2026, 17:52

LEE JIAN
[email protected]

The exterior of the newly opened Seo-Seoul Museum of Art in Geumcheon District, southwest Seoul [SEO-SEOUL MUSEUM OF ART/ KIM TAE-DONG]

The Seo-Seoul Museum of Art, the newest branch of the Seoul Museum of Art (SeMA) dedicated to new media art, opened Thursday in Geumcheon District, marking the first major art museum to serve the capital’s southwest region.

Located among the country’s largest concentrations of IT companies, the museum expects to serve as a hub for cultural research and open collaboration in Seoul’s southwest region while exploring the future of new media art.

It is also Seoul’s first public museum dedicated specifically to new media art. “Rather than treating technology merely as a tool for consumption, the museum seeks to recognize it as a new artistic language and become a site for creative experimentation,” SeMA director Choi Eun-ju told reporters during the museum’s inaugural news conference Thursday.

New media, per the museum, encompasses artworks incorporating video, sound and light, as well as performance, conceptual art, internet-based works, coding art and software-driven practices. These works typically employ television, video, film, lighting, computers and other digital devices.

Several exhibitions are already on view.

The inaugural edition of the annual program, “SeMA Performance,” starts Thursday and runs until April 12. The program features 27 artists and artist collectives. With the theme “Breathing,” the program explores the intersections of the human body, society and art, examining relationships between humans, media and the environment. Performances take place throughout the museum at scheduled times, many created specifically for the building’s performance spaces.

An exhibition documenting the construction process of the museum, titled “Mneme Topos,” is also on view. Through photographs, the show traces the people and moments connected to the birth of the Seo-Seoul Museum of Art. The exhibition unfolds in two acts: the first runs through April 26, and the second from April 28 to July 12.

Outdoors, “SeMA Project V_Yaloo” runs from Thursday through, tentatively, June 7. The exhibition features Project Yaloo’s “New Human Landing,” a spaceship-like structure with digital panels, depicting a city’s memories intersecting with future technology.

BY LEE JIAN [[email protected]]