The 10th Daegu Photo Biennale
Theme: The Pulse of Life
September 18 (Thu) – November 16 (Sun), 2025

Main Exhibition Theme: Daegu Arts Center 1-9 Hall The Pulse of Life

The exhibition is anchored in the concept of the Symbiocene—a term coined by Australian environmental philosopher Glenn Albrecht to imagine a future beyond the Anthropocene, where all life forms coexist and collaborate.

Through photography, installation, and video, it explores the origins of life, ecological continuity and resilience, the boundaries between human and non-human beings, and both visible and invisible worlds. The exhibition seeks to spark new imaginations and sensitivities, and to inspire a renewed ethic of care that transcends anthropocentric perspectives.

This main exhibition brings together internationally acclaimed photographers including Jochen LEMPERT (Germany), Robert ZHAO (Singapore), Valérie BELIN (France), Caio REISEWITZ (Brazil), Josèfa NTJAM (France), and Chris McCAW (USA). From Korea, Juyon KIM, Shinwook KIM, Yeondoo JUNG, and HAN Chungshik will also take part, offering audiences a unique opportunity to experience both the global currents of photography and the distinctive perspectives of contemporary Korean practice.

The Artistic Director Emmanuelle de l’Ecotais holds a PhD in Art History and is internationally recognized as a leading curator and scholar of Man Ray. She began her career at the Centre Pompidou and later served as curator of photography at the Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris. Since 2020, she has directed Photo Days, a photography festival spanning more than 100 venues across Paris.
She has curated major exhibitions in France and abroad, including Man Ray (Grand Palais, 1998), Düsseldorf School of Photography (ARC, 2008), Forms of Light: 100 Years of Abstraction and Photography (Tate Modern, 2018), Man Ray (Banco do Brasil Cultural Center, 2019–2020), Contemporary French Photography (Sungkok Art Museum, Seoul, 2024), and Man Ray and Max Dupain (Heide Museum, Melbourne, 2025).
She is also the author of numerous publications, such as Dada Spirit (Assouline), Man Ray (Taschen, Delpire), and Rayographs (Leo Scheer), and serves on several international acquisition committees and juries, including the Prix Pictet.

대지에서 하늘로 From the Ground to the Sky Hall_1
The Biennale begins with a space that stages a dialogue between cosmic forces and the Earth. Here, life is imagined as something that transcends biological boundaries, expanding into the realms of elements, matter, and atmospheres.
Alice ANDERSON, BRODBECK & DE BARBUAT, Bianca DACOSTA, Xiaocong GE, Patrick GRIES, Yeondoo JUNG, Chris McCAW, Agnieszka POLSKA, Anaïs TONDEUR, Patrick TOSANI

대지와 이어지다 Connecting to the Ground Hall_2
In this space, soil, trees, stone, and moss appear as quiet companions to our shared existence. Artists from diverse cultural and geographical backgrounds reveal a common sensitivity to the unseen relationships that connect us to matter and to time. Here, the earth is not presented as a passive backdrop, but as a living actor in its own right.
Xiaoyi CHEN, HAN Chungshik, Juyon KIM, Caio REISEWITZ, Antoine SCHNECK

지구 중심으로의 여정 A Journey to the Center of the Earth Hall_3
This hall takes us on a journey into the invisible depths of the world, where matter, time, and memory intertwine to reveal unsuspected forms of life.
Juliette AGNEL, Hyongryol BAK, Lev ILIZAROV, Angelika MARKUL, Meghann RIEPENHOFF, Ester VONPLON, Laure WINANTS, Miji YOON

인간, 자연 Human, Nature Hall_4
How do humans live with nature today? How can we rethink our place among the plants, animals, landscapes, and even the objects that surround us? The artists gathered in this hall offer multiple, sensitive, and poetic answers.
Valérie BELIN, Viriya CHOTPANYAVISUT, Karoline HJORTH & Riitta IKONEN, Jean-Baptiste HUYNH, Jane Jin KAISEN & Guston SONDIN-KUNG, Robert ZHAO

중심의 중심 The Center of the Center Hall_5
At the heart of the exhibition, this hall serves as a pivotal space— a place of resonance where the invisible flows of life become perceptible. This space features the 15-meter video installation Centre of the Centre by Australian artist Mel O’CALLAGHAN, whose practice explores the profound interconnections between human and non-human life forms, as well as between mineral and organic matter.

정원을 가꾸다 Cultivate Your Garden Hall 6-7
“Cultivate your garden,” as Voltaire famously said, is here an invitation to care for and nurture the living world around us. Denis BRIHAT lives this relationship in an intimate, everyday way.
Juliette AGNEL, Denis BRIHAT, Xuebing DU, Véronique ELLENA, Thierry FONTAINE, Gijeong GOO, Zhi JIANG, Sangyon JOO, Hyeoki KWON, Jochen LEMPERT, Hanako MURAKAMI, Josèfa NTJAM, Daniel OTERO TORRES

물의 길을 따라 Follow the Water Hall 8
Water is a living, moving, and fragile system that shapes and connects all forms of life, both visible and invisible. To follow water is to follow the thread of existence, where mineral, plant, animal, and human intertwine in continuous cycles of appearance and transformation.
Mandy BARKER, Hicham BERRADA, Nicolas FLOC’H, Ernest GOH, Manon LANJOUÈRE, Alice PALLOT, Tama No Te Tairoto

동물의 편에서 The Animal Side Hall 9
In this space, animals are presented as subjects in their own right, carriers of emotion and intelligence. The artists question our relationship with other living beings, blurring the boundaries between humanity and animality.
Dove ALLOUCHE, Nathalie BAETENS, Caroline CORBASSON & Andrea MONTANO, Lia DARJES, Tim FLACH, Suzanne HUSKY, Shinwook KIM, Hideki KOBAYASHI, Tina MERANDON, Éric POITEVIN, SHIMABUKU, Barry WEBB