25th International Symposium on Electronic Art(ISEA 2019)

Exhibited in the Asia Cultural Center in Gwangju

June to July 2019

ISEA2019 took place in and around the Asia Cultural Center in Gwangju. “The ACC, which opened in November 2015, is a Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism–affiliated institution established for the advancement of mutual understanding and cooperative growth with different Asian countries through exchange, education, research, and other efforts with regard to Asian culture”. It provided the rooms for all academic elements of ISEA2019 as well as a museum quality exhibition space. Performances and screenings were staged both inside and outside the building. The closing ceremony, including a spectacular art performance was staged at the Gwangju Traditional Culture Center.

Vessel of Vanitas

It is an intimate and personal encounter with the concept of vanitas – the ars moriendi in a culture, post the image and belief spaces of medieval and renaissance times. Today, in a time of scientific reason and post modernity, the Christian belief space of Vanitas vanitatum omnia vanitas.[Eccl. 1;2,12:8] translated to Vanity of Vanities; all is vanity is in question in doubt and appears out of context and potentially inappropriate. Yet equally one’s own withering transience is an essential human defining element – our relationship to death and the finite quality of life.