25th Seoul Performing Arts Festival to showcase theater, dance and interdisciplinary artwork Oct. 16-Nov. 9
“100 Keyboards” (SPAF) The 25th edition of Korea’s leading international performing arts festival, the 2025 Seoul Performing Arts Festival, will take place Oct. 16-Nov. 9 across major Seoul venues, including the National Theater of Korea, Sejong Center for the Performing Arts, ARKO and Daehakro Arts Theater.
This year’s theme, “Entanglement and Friction,” is inspired by Korean-German philosopher Han Byung-chul’s idea that true meaning and beauty emerge not from flawlessness but from imperfection, conflict, negation, unfamiliarity and contradiction — even as today’s aesthetic experiences increasingly pursue the “smooth, clean and uniform.”
The festival aims to explore the complexity of our time — its discourses and evolving artistic forms — through the lens of entanglement and friction.
“We aim to discover new possibilities by looking at the diverse discourses and changing artistic languages of contemporary society through points of tension and friction,” said SPAF Artistic Director Choi Kyu at a press conference in Seoul on Tuesday.
The 2025 festival will present 22 curated works in theater, dance and interdisciplinary art, alongside a program of forums, workshops and collaborative creation labs.
SPAF highlights contemporary questions along four key axes: new relationships among art, science and technology; expanded and transformed performance languages of sound and new music; contemporary dance vocabularies reimagined in collaboration with Dance Reflection by Van Cleef & Arpels; and perspectives on contemporary issues from artists across the Asia-Pacific region.
Among the featured works, Polish director Lukasz Twarkowski’s “The Employees” adapts Danish author Olga Ravn’s International Booker-shortlisted novel about humans and humanoids working together on a spaceship, questioning identity and labor. French artist David Geselson’s “Neandertal” revisits groundbreaking DNA research, inviting audiences into the lives of the dedicated scientists who have reshaped our understanding of human origins.
In the realm of sound and new music, Singaporean pianist Margaret Leng Tan presents “Dragon Ladies Don’t Weep,” a theatrical reflection on her artistic journey. Japanese artist Asuna’s “100 Keyboards” transforms resonance and interference from 100 toy keyboards into an immersive soundscape. Chinese-Australian artist William Yang’s “Milestone” combines photography, music and storytelling to reflect on life as an immigrant and queer artist.
Dance works, developed through international collaboration, showcase how choreography evolves while engaging with social discourse and local contexts. Highlights include (La) Horde with Ballet national de Marseille’s “Room With a View”; Belgian choreographer Jan Martens’ “The Dog Days Are Over 2.0”; and Korean choreographer Heo Seong-im’s “1 Degree Celsius.”
Finally, the perspectives of Asia-Pacific artists come into focus. Korean artist Koo Ja-ha’s “Haribo Kimchi” explores immigrant identity and cultural assimilation through food and robotic performers, while Thai director Wichaya Artamat’s “Baan Cult, Muang Cult” dismantles taboos surrounding Thailand’s military, religion and monarchy.
For more details and a full list of performances, visit the official SPAF website.
“Haribo Kimchi” (SPAF) 
“Dragon Ladies Don’t Weep” (SPAF) 
“The Employees” (SPAF) hwangdh@heraldcorp.com