The largest performing arts festival in Korea — one that fills Seoul's autumn with profound artistic inspiration — is ready to welcome its audiences. The Seoul Performing Arts Festival (SPAF), supported by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Arts Council Korea, and hosted and organized by the Korea Arts Management Service, will once again present a rich and varied program across the city's major theaters and cultural venues.
Since its inaugural edition in 2001, SPAF has grown into Korea's longest-running and most expansive international performing arts festival. Spanning theater, dance, and interdisciplinary arts, the festival has consistently brought a refined, era-conscious perspective to the questions of its time. Far more than a venue for polished productions, SPAF has served as a dynamic forum for dialogue — a space where artists and audiences engage in an ongoing exchange of questions and ideas.
Artistic Director Choi Seok-gyu, who leads the festival from 2022 through 2026, continues to shape a vision oriented toward a sustainable and inclusive future. This year's SPAF articulates four core curatorial directions. The first is the discovery of "new narratives" — amplifying voices long marginalized from center stage, including those of women, gender minorities, people with disabilities, and the aging. The second is "technological expansion and post-humanism," exploring the creative convergence of science and art while reflecting on the relationship between humanity and the environment. The third is "locality and translocality," engaging with the world through the regional contexts of Seoul and Asia. Beyond these, the festival puts forward four practical commitments to be realized across all aspects of the event: responding to the climate crisis, expanding accessibility for people with disabilities, practicing sustainable international mobility, and fostering a healthy performing arts ecosystem.
The festival will run for approximately three to four weeks from early to late October, concentrated across major cultural venues throughout Seoul. The city will be filled with new works by both established masters and emerging creators from Korea and abroad — works that engage with the cutting edge of contemporary stage aesthetics and pose searching social questions. The first-round lineup announced by the festival is as follows.
- Moonlight Okinawa | Jang Young, Yoon Hye-sook / Asia Culture Center
A collaborative work by directors Jang Young and Yoon Hye-sook with the Asia Culture Center, the production promises a stage that embraces the regionality and identity of Asia.
- "뺨을 맞지 않고 사는 게 삶의 전부가 될 순 없더라" | theatre, definitely
Opening with a provocative and arresting line as its central question, the work unfolds a set of contemporary inquiries into life and the stage. First performed at the 2024 Feminist Theatre Festival, it is a production that reaches far beyond what might be described as "a one-person show about the life of a trans woman in her late sixties."
- Oiseau | Han Kang, Julie Deliquet, Isabelle Huppert, Lee Hye-young
A major and much-anticipated production featuring the original work and participation of novelist Han Kang, alongside French director Julie Deliquet, internationally acclaimed actress Isabelle Huppert, and actress Lee Hye-young — a collaboration that promises storytelling of rare depth and resonance.
- La Distance | Tiago Rodrigues
A work by Tiago Rodrigues, Artistic Director of the Festival d'Avignon, that uses theatrical language to poetically explore the relationships and distances between human beings.
- Reminiscencia | Malicho Vaca Valenzuela
A work by Chilean artist Malicho Vaca Valenzuela that delicately reconstructs private memory and urban history through digital media, objects, and the body.
- Blur | PHI Studio, Riverbed Theatre, Onassis Culture
A global project in which PHI Studio, Riverbed Theatre, and Onassis Culture collaborate organically to deliver a media art and multidisciplinary immersive experience.
Detailed ticketing schedules and full program information for this year's SPAF — a festival poised to offer new perspectives on the contemporary world and leave a lasting impression — will be released in stages through the SPAF official website and official Instagram account.