2026 Seomjingang International Experimental Art Festival (SIEAF)

About the festival

The 2026 Seomjingang International Experimental Art Festival (SIEAF) is an international experimental art festival staged in the natural and everyday spaces of Gokseong, Jeollanam-do, including the Seomjingang and Daehwanggang rivers, forests, rice paddies and gardens. Programs include an archive exhibition of the 2025 festival with rural objects, the SIEAF Colloquium on the river’s history and folklore and the future of rural culture through art, a rice paddy fashion show with costumes made from natural materials and local produce, the opening program “WITH Dokkaebi & Toad” at Amnok Resort where the two rivers meet, a movement healing workshop and Oxygen Concert in the forest, and a Flower Parade at the Seomjingang Fairy Tale Garden. The opening blends shamanic rites, media art, world music, dance, butoh, gugak, percussion, installation art and drone performance, sharing rice wine and rice cakes made from rice collected by residents as a contemporary ritual of thanks for the harvest.