Frieze Seoul Announces City-Wide Lineup for 2025 Edition
Director Patrick Lee said the upcoming performances, films, and conversations will ’[speak] to the extraordinary depth and breadth of Korea’s contemporary art landscape’. Save to My Ocula
Frieze Seoul has revealed an ambitious programme of live performances, rooftop screenings, critical dialogues, and artist projects for its fourth edition, set to return to Gangnam convention centre COEX from 3 to 6 September 2025.
Director Patrick Lee said the city-wide programme will ‘[speak] to the extraordinary depth and breadth of Korea’s contemporary art landscape, while also welcoming global perspectives that challenge and expand our ways of seeing’.
Between 1 and 4 September, select neighbourhoods will host evening events, starting with cultural hub Euljiro, featuring non-profit and artist-run spaces, and artist studios including that of Haegue Yang.
Then the Hannam area will feature galleries like Lehmann Maupin, Esther Schipper, and P21, followed by the Cheongdam and Samcheong neighbourhoods with galleries like White Cube, Perrotin, Gladstone, and Kukje Gallery.
The fair’s platform for live art and performance, Frieze LIVE, will feature 11 next-generation Korean artists who will explore queer narratives and gender sensitivity at Art Sonje Center.
Artists including Yagwang, Younghae Chang, Jimin Hah, and Ru Kim will explore what has shaped contemporary art in Korea, with additional performances extended throughout the city at Kukje Gallery K2, Dosan Park, and more.
For Frieze Film, screenings and talks will be held on the rooftop of Seoul Museum of Art from 2 to 4 September with works that navigate occult and spiritual traditions by artists like Amit Dutta, Angela Su, and Hsu Chia-Wei.
Meanwhile Studio 159 will host talks on topics like the growing influence of Korean artists and the Korean art market, the use of AI within arts, how queer Asian identities intersect with digital memory, and the challenges emerging galleries face today.
Finally at the fair, artist duo Moon Kyungwon and Jeon Joonho will present a ‘process-led environment’ that invites ‘close observation’, while Liam Gillick will bring a plexiglass and furniture installation that similarly invites careful looking.
‘From intimate performances to ambitious filmic narratives and critical debate, Frieze Seoul 2025 promises to offer a compelling snapshot of artistic practice today from across the Asian region and beyond,’ Lee said. —[O]
Main image: Ru Kim, a fist is a fist is a fist – Ignition (2024). Performance. Courtesy © Ru Kim.
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