10 Korean Arts Organizations to Collaborate with Arts Groups from 9 Countries Abroad

Ministry of Culture to Launch 'Kore·A·Round Culture' Project
Promoting Cultural Exchange Between Domestic and International Arts Organizations

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism announced on May 15 that it will launch the "2025 Kore·A·Round Culture" project in cooperation with the Korean Foundation for International Cultural Exchange. This project aims to support two-way cultural exchanges between domestic and international arts organizations.

The ministry stated that a total of 124 overseas organizations applied during the open call held from December last year to January this year, and that 10 organizations were ultimately selected.

This year, the countries involved in the collaborations include Germany, Singapore, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, Austria, Italy, Japan, China, and France, making a total of nine countries. The project will feature seven performance collaborations and three exhibition collaborations in fields such as dance, traditional arts, theater, and multidisciplinary arts. Events will be held both in Korea and in each partner country.

Korea-Brazil Dance Collaboration (Brazil)
[Photo by Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism]

The first collaboration to be presented is a collection exchange exhibition organized by the Seoul Museum of Art and the Abu Dhabi Music & Arts Foundation (ADMAF). In Abu Dhabi, works by leading Korean contemporary artists such as Nam June Paik, Lee Bul, and Yang Haegue will be exhibited at Manarat Al Saadiyat, a major cultural and artistic hub, from May 16 to June 30. In Korea, works by representative artists from the first to third generations of contemporary art in the United Arab Emirates?rarely seen in Korea?will be exhibited at the Seoul Museum of Art in December. Also, in the first half of the year, the Busan International Dance Festival Organizing Committee and France's Herve Koubi Company will stage the Korea-France joint dance production "No Matter."

In the second half of the year in Korea, the following events are scheduled: the Korea-Austria joint dance piece "Dancing Miners" (August); the Korea-Japan traditional music and dance collaborative performance "Cheoyong, Crossing the Sea" (October); a Korea-Singapore jazz collaboration performance at the Jarasum Jazz Festival in October, featuring Singapore's leading arts platform Esplanade; and the dance piece "The First Dance" (October), co-produced by the Annaesoon Company and Italy's Fondazione Fabbrica Europa. Performance and exhibition schedules and detailed information will be announced sequentially on the official website.

Yoon Yangsu, Director General for International Cultural Promotion Policy at the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, stated, "This year, overseas organizations could directly participate in the open call, and we were able to confirm the high local demand for collaboration with Korean artists, in line with the global status of K-culture. Going forward, we will continue to provide policy support to ensure that exchanges between domestic and international arts organizations do not remain one-off events, but develop into sustainable, two-way cultural exchanges."