Ocean STAGE
The Future of the Ocean Is Also in the Museum
Exhibition in Busan, South Korea

On September 17, the Busan Museum of Art in South Korea opens Future Museology, an international collaborative curatorial project marking the museum's reopening after a major renovation. The project asks how museums can respond to rapid changes in technology and knowledge production at a time of mounting ecological urgency. As part of this initiative, TBA21–Academy, in collaboration with Schmidt Ocean Institute, presents Ocean STAGE, a space devoted to the many ways in which communities shape the ocean.

Ocean STAGE is conceived as a physical extension of Ocean-Archive.org, TBA21–Academy's collaborative digital platform for ocean research. Its program has two strands. A continuous film program brings together works from the TBA21 Collection and commissioning program, Ocean Archive, and the Schmidt Ocean Institute's Artist-at-Sea program. Alongside it, a public program of talks, workshops, and performances brings artists, scientists, policy experts, and visitors, both local and international, together. Ocean STAGE is designed as a place for shared research and experimentation, in keeping with TBA21's belief that museums should not only preserve cultural heritage, but also take an active role in public life and engage with the social and environmental challenges facing their communities.

TBA21–Academy launches Ocean STAGE in Busan ahead of the 2028 United Nations Ocean Conference, which will be held in South Korea. The project brings the debate over the Ocean's future into a public setting and gives artists a central role in shaping that conversation. For TBA21–Academy, artistic practice can make unfamiliar or overlooked ocean realities tangible and help build a broader sense of collective responsibility towards the sea.

The film program combines works from the TBA21 Collection with material produced by Ocean Archive and the Schmidt Ocean Institute.