Alison Nguyen

Frieze Film will return with Busan Biennale x Frieze Film Seoul 2026, an off-site film programme presented in collaboration with the Busan Biennale. Conceived as a Seoul-based extension of the Biennale's curatorial theme, Dissident Chorus, the programme will bring together moving-image works by Alison Nguyen, Umi Ishihara, Bhenji Rha, Luiz Roque, Moe Satt, Brahim Tall, Tanat Teeradakorn and Natasha Tontey, whose practices move across film, sound, performance, ritual, choreography, club culture and forms of political and embodied resistance.

All screenings will be open to the public and will take place at SONGEUN Art and Cultural Foundation over Frieze Week, offering Frieze Seoul's international audience a direct encounter with one of Korea's historically significant biennials. 

Text and image courtesy of Frieze.

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Aisle 9 is set in a family-owned hosiery factory where Helena, the matriarch of the company, has rented out part of their space to a start-up, World Global Services, in order to avoid layoffs. As mysterious boxes begin accumulating in the large vacant areas, the workers continue their daily socialization, working, smoking, and playing archery. One night, an arrow sails into Aisle 9, pierces one of the boxes, and the staff slowly realize that they are in the midst of the stuff of people's everyday life: video diaries, home movies, artist films, and prosumer content that have been censored by the government, boxed up, shipped away. "Niệm Khúc Cuối" (The Last Song) is the first memory that is unearthed from these boxes, a song that was banned in Vietnam not because it was too political but because it was too romantic, not patriotic enough. The workers turn Aisle 9 into a viewing station, adding to their night time activities the intake and study of these memories.

Image:

Alison Nguyen, Aisle 9 (film stills), 2025, 4K video, color, sound, 20 minute loop

Learn more --

https://www.frieze.com/article/frieze-seoul-programming-2026