The 2022 Seoul Performing Arts Festival (SPAF) held a press conference on the 20th of April at Seoul Artists’ Platform in Daehak-ro. Young-ho Moon, President of Korea Arts Management Service (KAMS) and Kyu Choi, Artistic Director of the Seoul Performing Arts Festival took the floor as speakers in front of the press. Kyu was appointed as the Artistic Director of SPAF for an unprecedented 5 year term. At the conference Kyu presented the direction and vision for the festival as the main topic of the conference. Over the next 5 years, SPAF will explore five main themes, ‘artistic diversity and inclusion’, ‘art and climate crisis’, ‘art and city’, “art and technology’ and ‘art and Next Mobility’ as its vision. The Festival will take place based on these themes for the first time this October under the topic, ‘Transforming.’ Kyu said that he aims to hold “an international performing arts festival that represents contemporary perspectives and the values of the time” while expressing his intention to form international solidarity across the performing arts sectors around the world

Vision
SPAF selected these five themes because they are in line with what it sees as the contemporary perspectives and noteworthy values of the time. They are also answers to the Festival’s question in the time of the pandemic. COVID-19’s impact on the performing arts and festivals has upended their circumstances such as the element of concurrence or the element of place, thus calling for their re-examination. Against this backdrop, the Festival has questioned what contemporary arts are in an effort to establish its vision, and as a result has arrived at the five themes. At the same time, they are in line with the mission of SPAF, “It introduces, produces and circulates the contemporary performing arts. It communicates with the world as a window on the Asian performing arts. It serves as a venue for coexistence, cooperation and solidarity in the Korean performing arts ecosystem. It promotes diversity, and inclusion while taking the environment into consideration.” Accordingly, SPAF shares with the audience art works that recognize and question social issues such as gender, disability, an ageing society, etc., which call for a change in the way people perceive them. It also recognizes the seriousness of climate change and promotes artistic activities that take the environment into consideration. In addition, it explores the history, society, and political nature of Seoul based on the city’s locations and places as physical spaces while presenting artistic activities that are taking place in the city. Regarding art and technology, the festival will share its exploration and experimentation on the way art is reflecting how technology is deeply imbedded into our daily lives, and how art should be reflecting this. Lastly, the Festival will carefully look into what ways and forms international mobility for artworks and artists have developed since the beginning of the pandemic.

Management
The Festival will be managed by the Korea Arts Management Service (KAMS) as last year. To ease the concerns on KAMS in organizing an arts festival, bodies comprised of experts from each field are put together to reinforce the Festival’s structure. In addition, SPAF has strengthened the fundamentals for efficient management by working in liaison with the other performing arts projects of KAMS. The Festival Committee, Program Advisory Board and Collaborating Artists are organized in such a way as to lay the foundation for building an organic structure, on which a solid cooperation between the public and private sectors can continue. These bodies are devices not only to establish a sustainable system for cooperation, but also for ensuring expertise. After a pilot operation this year, they will be officially commissioned and become fully operational next year. The Festival Committee promotes stronger connection and cooperation between the Festival and performing arts sectors around the world. It aims to carry out co-productions and to build circulation networks. The Program Advisory Board is a group of expert producers who will serve as bridges in the contemporary performing arts ecosystem. It consists of the most prominent field experts from each genre, who are going to select winning performances through open calls, to recommend artists from around the world and coordinate productions and programs during the festival. Collaborating Artists will be involved in the development of performances while sharing festival themes and perspectives, and will present the outcome of that process during SPAF. Collaborating artists from 2022 to 2024 will be selected and announced in the middle of this year.

Internationality and Locality

Artistic Director Kyu Choi’s presentation was followed by a question from the press about ‘internationality.’ A journalist pointed out that there are only three international groups invited to the festival this year - Rimini Protokoll, Hiroaki Umeda and Compagnie XY, saying that perhaps it is not enough to be called an “international festival.” Kyu answered the question by saying that SPAF has been focusing on presenting excellent international performances from outside Korea so far, but since the beginning of the pandemic, the Festival decided to put an emphasis on rethinking internationalism or globalism. At the heart of this rethinking lies Seoul, where the Festival takes place, and Asia, the region where Seoul belongs. And based on that, the Festival is looking back at internationality. In addition, the Festival will serve as an international platform more vigorously so that it can make a bigger contribution for Korean performances participating in the festival to be circulated more broadly around the world. It will also put more efforts to develop audiences in the Seoul Capital Area and other regions by circulating international invitations at local cultural centers and related infrastructures.

A series of questions on various other aspects of the Festival including the budget, the operation of KAMS, accessibility for the disabled, etc. continued during the press conference that lasted for an hour and a half. This reflects the high expectation on the 2022 Seoul Performing Arts Festival. Kyu said that 2022 SPAF will work together with other Asian performing arts festivals and serve as a platform for creation and production in Asia. Adding that it will serve as a stepping stone and foster an environment in which art works that reflect locality and the values of Asia can be produced internationally.

This year, SPAF is presenting around 16 performances and running other programs from 7^th to 30^th October. Ticket sales will begin in July at Interpark.com and via the online reservation system of the ARKO Arts Theater.

2022 Seoul Performing Arts Festival Overview