Clik | Edition 19 | July 2022.
We are delighted to connect with you through live events at physical spaces, via hybrid modes or virtually at the click of a button! We invite you to join us, whenever you are ready, or from wherever you are, on myriad creative journeys, where with valued partners in India and in Korea, we explore new pathways and experiences, the magic of live performances and exhibitions or engage with those newly imagined from creation to reception and distribution on digital platforms. In this edition, as we open our cultural calendar, through a combination of phygital presentations, we invite you to evocative journeys and sensory experiences that though moored in local culture, connect and resonate with audiences worldwide!
We hope, with this e-digest, to stay meaningfully connected with you, to discover and engage with the unique, local characteristics as well as the shared, global dimensions of the dynamic, ongoing intercultural dialogue between India and Korea. The Story of the Lake - by Company Young, Korea - A four-city tour across India.
Presented in association with
The magic of theatre in physical spaces, returns...
The Story of the Lake is a Korean folk tale that focuses on a lake that provided sustenance and yet, was a source of great worry for the community that lived on its shores. The latter, was due to the fact that the lake often breached the dam that the community built around it, flooding the village and causing great damage to both life and livelihoods. Every time the dam was breached, the villagers painstakingly re-built it at a great cost. One day a monk who was passing by, suggested that a child had to be sacrificed to prevent the dam from repeatedly breaking down. Accordingly, a child called Dae-su was selected as a sacrificial offer. Legend has it that the sacrifice stemmed the tide and that the dam never breached its walls thereafter. In memory of this great sacrifice, the lake was named Dae-su, meaning ‘big water’. The grateful villagers continued to celebrate the child's mindful act that provided them and future generations with the life-saving resource of water and saved them from catastrophic destruction.
According to the folktale, the recurrent breaching of the dam began after the Black Giant fell into the lake after losing a battle with the Sky Giant. The Sky Giant manifests himself as the monk who orders the sacrifice of the boy. With this sacrifice he defeats the Black Giant and completely quells his evil intentions. The monk later brings back to life the young boy who was sacrificed and returns him to his grateful parents.
What was the significance of this seemingly devastating sacrifice? Did it symbolically mean that only innocence and purity can save both environment and people? That only by giving up what is dearest to us, can we recognise the value of life and all that Nature has given us? That Nature, like an innocent child must be valued, cherished and nurtured? And that if disrespected, will demand a costly sacrifice of what we hold dearest?
Company Young's thought-provoking production, with lyrical intensity, artistry and powerful storytelling, portrays the importance of ecological consciousness, community, memory and identity.
Our focus has been to present exceptional performances from Korea across a South India circuit - at Children's Festivals such as the Little Festival in Chennai, the Aha! Festival in Bengaluru and with the Honorary Consulate of the Republic of Korea in Hyderabad and Guntur - with an aim to connect meaningfully with a large network of school children, their parents and teachers. All our productions aimed to focus on what was unique in Korean theatre, to examine how traditional technique and training continue to have contemporary relevance and to present messages that were universal and timeless.
While presenting interesting and innovative examples of Children's theatre productions from Korea, we look out for opportunities to research and develop new, vibrant Indo-Korean collaborative theatre productions for children.
Following two years of online presentations, we are delighted this year to return to presenting theatre in physical auditoria. The Story of the Lake by Company Young Korea is all set to tour 4 cities in India, to share the magic of theatre, specially created for children.
Most people exist due to their social roles or the need to fit in with others or with specific groups. However, I think people still have their own existential values. In my opinion, understanding how precious we and others are and sharing empathy through understanding is most important in our lives. The Story of the Lake is a play illustrating those values. Through the show, I hope the audience, including children and adults, become happy, share their affection and a common love for humanity.
Wednesday 29 June, 2022
11.00 a.m. & 7.30 p.m.
at the Aha! Festival at Ranga Shankara, Bangalore.
For tickets, please log on to www.rangashankara.org, www.bookmyshow.com or contact +91 80 2649 3982.
For further information, please contact InKo Centre - T: 044 24361224; E: enquiries@inkocentre.org
Sunday 3 July, 2022
6.30 p.m.
at Delhi Public School, Guntur.
For donor passes, please contact +91 89785 85801, Info@kacc.in,
For further information, please contact InKo Centre - T: 044 24361224; E: enquiries@inkocentre.org
Tuesday 5 July, 2022
6.00 p.m.
at Shilpakala Vedika, Hyderabad.
For donor passes, please contact Rosanne: +91 9908050005, rosann@hcgkr.in.
For further information, please contact InKo Centre - T: 044 24361224; E: enquiries@inkocentre.org
Thursday 7 & Friday 8 July, 2022
11.00 a.m.
at The Little Festival at Museum Theatre, Chennai.
For donor passes, please log on to www.thelittletheatreindia.com or contact 044 – 28211115 or +91 8778449642.
For further information, please contact InKo Centre - T: 044 24361224; E: enquiries@inkocentre.org
Suitable for children aged 10 years+ and for adults.
Duration - 50 minutes (In English, with occasional subtitles)
Presented in association with
Korea National Contemporary Dance Company
Dance on Film is a specially curated series of contemporary dance projects developed by the Korean National Contemporary Dance Company. The series, co-presented by InKo Centre and the Korea National Contemporary Dance Company, will comprise a total of 5 films, varied in theme and technique to present some of the most exciting choreographers and dancers in Korea today. With the pandemic looming large, the films provide a window to the resilience of the artists in these unprecedented times, acknowledges the march of technology and the blurring of the real and the virtual and examines deeper fundamental questions of co-existence between Man and Nature and of the possibility of transformation and resurgence through art.
With the pandemic gradually receding, the films presented in Dance on Film: Season 2, provide a window to the resilience of the artists in these unprecedented times, acknowledges the march of technology and the blurring of the real and the virtual and examines deeper fundamental questions of co-existence between Man and Nature and of the possibility of transformation and resurgence through art.
We begin Season 2 with BreAking, a film that deftly portrays the concept of play, where with the innocence of children one can break free from definitions and boundaries to live in a happy, free and boundless manner. Within a space where light and darkness coexist, Director Lee Mee Jee presents a stage in which dancers pass, rearrange and mix everything using their own rhythms. The work portrays individuals who imagine, play and reconstruct the world while turning a dichotomous space into a space of diversity, plurality and inclusion.
Credits
Choreography Lee Kyungeun
Director Lee Mee Jee
Music Jang Youngkyu, Yeong Die
Dance Lee Krungeun, DROP, Kim Dongjoo, Kim Youngeun, G1, Kim Ahin
Dance on Film: Season 2 presents 5 films that celebrate resilience, artistry and the possibility of resurgence and transformation through art.
Established in 2010, the Korea National Contemporary Dance Company (KNCDC) is Korea's only national contemporary dance company. Through dance created in collaboration with artists with exceptional creative capacities, KNCDC aspires to create Korean contemporary dance which tells stories of history, society and daily lives of contemporaneity that can be appreciated across regions and by all generations.
As an organization that specializes in the creation of new productions, KNCDC seeks to realise diverse contemporary values in dance performances. KNCDC commissions productions by inviting choreographers with authentic artistic directions and by selecting the most suitable dancers for each project. Furthermore, by protecting the rights of the artists, KNCDC enables artists to freely express individuality within the dance company’s stable system.
KNCDC continues to work to provide the best environment for dance where the artists and audience can grow together. And as a platform where artists and audiences meet, the company hopes to form a healthy ecosystem where diverse values can coexist. KNCDC plans to enrich the lives of citizens through their experiences with dance at close proximity, in their day-to-day life.
The link to view the performance will be accessible until Thursday, 21 July 2022.
Presented in association with
K-Art International Exchange Association
This exhibition focuses on the works of 7 artists who live and work in Jeju Island, one of the most scenic and beautiful islands located at the southernmost tip of South Korea. The island is famed for its volcanic origins, it's amazing pearl-diving, resilient women, its wild cliffs and surging ocean, it's magnificent, 'olle' trails which are walking paths adjacent to stormy seas and it's 'oreums' which are walkways on the rim of defunct volcanoes that dot the landscape. This exhibition pays tribute to the raw beauty and resilience of Jeju Island - of life there and the unbroken, intimate connection between Man & Nature. The Hallasan Mountain, the Jeju Oreum and Olle Trails, the Gotjawal Forest, a naturally formed forest located on the middle slopes of Hallasan Mountain, the magnificent sea view, Haenyeo, the female divers whose livelihood consists of harvesting a variety of mollusks, seaweed, and other sea life from the ocean as well as myriad Jeju myths, burst into life in this exhibition with astonishing tactility and deft technique.
Join us as we re-open our Gallery @ InKo Centre with an exhibition that brings with it the optimism of new beginnings and a renewed sense of hope!
The exhibition will open at The Gallery @ InKo Centre on Thursday, 28 July 2022 at 6.00 p.m.
The exhibition will be on view until Sunday, 28 August 2022.
