DREAM RITUAL
Bongsu Park + Jinyeob Cha
The Coronet Theatre
3 - 6 July 2019
DREAM RITUAL is a dance and video performance that will feature audience member's dream texts collected through the project’s website: submit you dream here www.DreamRitual.org
Bongsu Park is inspired by the Korean tradition of buying and selling dreams which led her to create the DREAM AUCTION art project where people can exchange dreams. Within the DREAM AUCTION programme, Bongsu joins forces with an innovator of contemporary dance in Korea, Jinyeob Cha, to create DREAM RITUAL - choreographed and performed by Jinyeob as a soloist. Together they will explore undiscovered areas of dreams and dreaming, the stages of sleep along with the beautiful journey into deep subconscious.
Dream Ritual is rooted in the tales of dream transactions first encountered in the Samguk Sagi, the oldest surviving chronicle of Korean history. Cha’s character Munhui buys a dream and becomes a shaman who travels to the collective unconscious where she encounters the dreams of others.
Quotes from real life dreams – donated via the project’s website – are projected on to sweeping folds of organza which represent the arcs and ripples of a typical sleep brainwave. Jinyeob Cha travels along and between the curved line of fabric, her ritualistic choreography swirling and earthbound. haihm’s ambient soundtrack includes field recordings of aboriginal dream ceremonies.
Alongside the performance, a selection of Bongsu Park’s video works will be exhibited in The Print Room continuing her exploration of dreams, mythologies and cycle of life.
WE NEED YOU:
We started this project self funded, but we need support from a variety of sources: public funds, in-kind support from partner organisations and donations from individuals wanting to contribute to the accomplishment of the project. The creation phase of the project will beginning in June. Your investment now will:
* cover artists' flight from Korea as well as accommodation in London
* enable us to create the stage installation
* provide equipment: hiring video projectors and lighting
* contribute to artist fees and commissions for the final stage of development
* support filming of the finished work with professional equipment and technical support
DREAM RITAUAL | DREAM AUCTION
DREAM RITAUAL | DREAM AUCTION is an art project inspired by Korean Culture that deals with dreams. People who have had good dreams, for example one involving a pig which traditionally alludes to the arrival of wealth, can actually sell their dream to someone else. Any dream which has a positive interpretation has a value that makes it a desirable asset for someone else to acquire. Koreans buy and sell dreams for fun. We find this transaction of an intangible asset to be fascinating. We’d like to see what happens if we make this process more external and organized in the form of a live performance and public auction to a smart, open-minded audience.
People are invited to submit their dreams as a simple text through our project website. These dreams will feature for the upcoming performance DREAM RITUAL, artwork creation and DREAM AUCTION.
DREAM AUCTION is being planned (details tbc). Roger McIlroy a professional auctioneer and long-time auction house executive is acting as consultant and mentor to the process of this unusual project. Monies raised from the auction will go to creative charities such as House of Fairy Tales children charity and Access Space etc. In so doing, we hope the process of sharing dreams can positively affect not just those participating, but also other people’s futures and dreams. A record of monies raised for charity will be published on the project website.
WORKSHOPS & DISCUSSIONS
We are running a series of talks, discussions and workshops in lot of different contexts around the themes of dream. After our first workshop 'Dream and Dreaming - their place in our lives' at Wellcome Collection's Reading Room on 2nd April 2019, the next one will be held at Korean Cultural Centre in UK on 31st May. This series of workshops will be run by the project director Bongsu Park and Hazel Riley - an author, teacher and shamanic practitioner.
During the workshop we will talk about the project and the specific Korean culture of buying and selling dreams. Also we will share our ideas about dreams from many perspectives – dream related traditional customs to neuroscience and psychology. Alongside the dream contributions through our project website, people can contribute their dreams off-line at the end of workshop.
ABOUT US:
Bongsu Park Concept and Direction
Bongsu Park is a London-based Korean artist. Her recent work is founded on how our innermost thoughts may connect with other people’s and how these can be shared publicly. She studied at the Slade School of Fine Arts, UK and at l’Ecole des Beaux-Arts de Bordeaux, France. She has exhibited internationally including Zona Maco Arte Contemporáneo-Sample, FIAC-cinéphémère, The Moving Image Istanbul, Barcelona LOOP, Gyungnam Art Museum in Changwon, South Korea and her performance work showed at Camden Arts Centre, Rosenfeld Porcini gallery and the Print Room Coronet Theatre in London. Her work finds its roots in the philosophy of her homeland South Korea and brings this into the context of contemporary western societies.
Jinyeob Cha Choreography and performance
Jinyeob Cha is the artistic director of Collective A. Cha has worked with many international companies including Hofesh Shechter Company (UK), Galili Dance Company (Netherlands) and English National Opera productions (UK).She received numerous awards, including 2014 Young Artist of the Year Award : Minister of Culture & Arts Merit Awards from the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism. She was commissioned as a choreography director of the PyeongChang 2018 Olympic Winter Games, choreographing the opening and closing ceremonies.
haihm Sound Design
haihm is an electronic musician, producer and DJ. Born in Seoul, she grew up with a classical piano education. Since 2008, she has released two self-produced electronic albums and performed at SXSW in 2016. She has been working with artists from various fields, including visual arts, contemporary dance, film and collaboration with classical symphony orchestras.
OUR PARTERS:
DREAM AUCTION | DREAM RITUAL will be realised with support in kind by The Coronet Theatre, Korean Cultural Centre in UK and Rosenfeld Porcini Gallery.
The Coronet Theatre is a risk-taking, international theatre in an iconic, Grade II listed building in London’s Notting Hill. Both its programme and the building’s restoration is curated by Artistic Director & CEO Anda Winters. The Coronet Theatre presents an eclectic programme of theatre, film, dance, music, poetry and visual art in its intimate 195-seat main auditorium and 90-seat studio space, re-named The Print Room in recognition of the company’s previous home at a nearby print works. A fusion of multi-disciplinary international and UK work, The Coronet Theatre stages a mix of new productions, commissions and visiting artists, including a number of UK and world premieres. We offer memorable and often unexpected experiences for our audiences, while supporting established artists and nurturing new talent.
Korean Cultural Centre UK (KCCUK) opened by the 'Korean Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism' in January 2008 under the jurisdiction of the 'Embassy of the Republic of Korea' London, the role of the KCC is to enhance friendship, amity and understanding between Korea and the UK through cultural and educational activities. From the KCC's central London location near Trafalgar Square, their dedicated cultural team work to further develop established cultural projects, introduce new opportunities to expand our Korean events programme in the UK, and to encourage cultural exchange.
Founded in June 2011 by Ian Rosenfeld and Dario Porcini, rosenfeld porcini occupies a prime location in the heart of the dynamic gallery district of London’s Fitzrovia with 3,000 square feet of gallery space. rosenfeld porcini has a strong international outlook. The gallery values a cross referencing approach both through exhibitions curated around themes in art and a cultural program focusing on unique events involving artists across all disciplines – visual arts, performance and music , which are meant to challenge perceptions.
Why is DREAM AUCTION | DREAM RITUAL important?
How can our dreams can be expressed externally and shared through and re-imagined in a transactional arena? Art forms are becoming more intangible – from the physical to the fluid and ephemeral. I plan to shift the emphasis towards ideas, dreams and desires that cannot be reduced to three-dimensional physical forms. I am hoping to encourage people to see the value in the transaction of ideas and imagined scenarios rather than a physical manifestation of those thoughts.
Through this project I aim to raise questions around customs, beliefs and art within different cultures and individuals. Encounters with others’ dreams and shared moments can offer the possibility of a better understanding of each other and our nature in a undiscovered area of unconscious.
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EACH PRINT IS AVAILABLE IN THE FOLLOWING SIZES
21cm x 30cm, edition of 50 - £100.00
30cm x 42cm, edition of 25 - £200.00
42cm x 60cm, edition of 10 - £500.00
Ritual no.1, giclée print on bamboo paper, 2019
Ritual no.2, giclée print on bamboo paper, 2019
Ritual no.3, giclée print on bamboo paper, 2019
Ritual no.4, giclée print on bamboo paper, 2019
Ritual no.5, giclée print on bamboo paper, 2019
Ritual no.6, giclée print on bamboo paper, 2019
Ritual no.7, giclée print on bamboo paper, 2019
Ritual no.8, giclée print on bamboo paper, 2019
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Bongsu’s dream:
I’m looking down at a classroom.
A girl is playing the cello.
It seems like a music school class.
She plays the cello so beautifully.
All of her class mates as well as a western female teacher are looking at her.
They all wonder how she can play the cello so well.
She normally plays the violin.
Her fingers touch the strings and vibrate creating an amazing melody.
After finishing the song she said
"I was thinking of a story about ..."
(i cannot remember but i think it was an old classic film title)
"The man that i was thinking of was..."
(i think it was an old actor’s name).
The teacher’s eyes became red, full of emotion and I felt like crying too.
She is now in a studio in a factory area.
She is moulding a geometrical shape - a square and a sphere architectural shape using a chemical mix.
A musician friend arrives and she teaches him how to mould the same shape on the next table.
She realized that the mix that she used was wrong and it would make a fire.
I saw the smoke and made sure my friend is safe, I called the emergency services and I am suddenly driving a car, I can now see my hands on a handle and I realised that she was me/I was her.
I arrived at the factory entrance where the studio is.
The fire had been caught and people had gathered to watch.
I talked to a fire officer.
She smiled and told me
“Everything was good.”