The specter of history often haunts South Korean artist Jaeseon Moon. The Korean War and the ensuing division, other historical events, and individual tragedies are among the topics he frequently tackles. Some themes are recurrent, like the image of a little girl who steps into the Imjin River, which crosses the Korean Demilitarized Zone.
In Le Deux, Moon and his SORO Performance Unit’s Taiwan debut at the Guling Street Avant-Garde Theatre (牯嶺街小劇場) in Taipei this weekend, the metaphor of the little girl and the river in Moon’s 2005 The Old Vibration have transformed into a more pervasive motif of water. Featuring three dancers and a transparent acrylic tank of water, the performance is an interdisciplinary effort by a team that includes an art therapist, a biologist, choreographers and performing artists.
Moon says that the collaboration involves team members sharing their inspirations and making creative inputs. For example, water made the biologist think of cells dividing and changing shape under a microscope, while performing artists wanted to explore how it feels when water touches their skin and runs down their bodies. To Moon, water is a muse, much as the ocean in Ernest Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea.
Photo courtesy of Guling Street Avant-Garde Theatre
“We come from different backgrounds and fields of expertise. When we meet, we don’t allot responsibilities and tasks. We sit quietly, exchange and share our inner thoughts,” the director told the Taipei Times through a translator.
Since its premiere in 2007, Le Deux has toured to Japan, France, Spain and Australia, and is part of the SORO Performance Unit’s continuous effort to reach out to and collaborate with artists in different regions. The group also initiated Performance Art Network Asia, a platform to facilitate exchanges and understanding among performing artists in Asian countries. Last month, a series of performances, forums, workshops and video screenings were held at the event, which included artists from South Korea, Thailand, Singapore, Taiwan, China, Japan and Bangladesh.
“To us, a work of performance art is fluid, constantly changing. So it is meaningless to perform in a fixed space. We want to travel to different places, build a network and use the experiences to enrich the idea and practice of the art,” Moon said.
Photo courtesy of Guling Street Avant-Garde Theatre
He said that seven years ago the SORO group was one of the first to settle in Mullae, a thriving community of artists at a former iron foundry in Seoul. Over the years, Mullae has become a hub of artistic activities and is considered a place where all artists come to develop their arts.
“So now we think it’s time to move out,” he said.
Photo courtesy of Guling Street Avant-Garde Theatre
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