Meet African Culture on Gwacheon Streets
By Chung Ah-young
Staff Reporter
Any given street can become a stage, and pedestrians can be audiences in Gwacheon on the southern outskirts of Seoul.
From Sept. 28 to Oct. 3, street performances from Eastern and Western countries will be staged during the 11th Gwacheon Hanmadang Festival.
A total of 31 outdoor performances _ 15 official Korean productions, seven overseas productions and nine amateur entries _ will take to the stage for five days.
The international street performing arts festival, organized by Gwacheon City with the support of Gyeonggi Province, gained a great reputation in the field of street and open-air theaters through unique performances.
Yim Su-taek, artistic director of the festival, said that this year, the festival will feature African culture _ last year was focused on French culture.
``During the festival, African percussion groups will perform and African photo exhibitions and other cultural experience programs will be held as special events,'' he said.
Aaninka, a dance group from the Ivory Coast, will perform traditional African dance and songs. The group of African dance specialists will show different aspects of African culture such as weddings, coming-of-age ceremonies, births and harvests.
Kumbaya, the only African percussion band in Korea, will play rich rhythms using folk instruments such as the ``djembe,'' (a West African drum that is believed to have come from the Malinke people in the Northeast of Guinea) ``dundun,'' (larger of the two West African bass drums) and others. Kwak Yeon-keun, the leader of the band, learned African style percussion and jazz drum skills in both Japan and the United States and has collected a lot of percussion music from all over the world.
``Also, the festival has gradually inspired young Korean artists to develop interests in street performances. As a result, a growing number of Korean artists from various genres including traditional outdoor performances called `madanggeuk' will take part in the festival, compared to previous years' festival,'' Yim said.
The festival will open with ``The Hongdongji Play'' performed by the Wuturi Players. Hondongji, one of the characters in Ggokdugaksi-noreum _ a Korean traditional performance by Namsadang (traveling male entertainers) _ is the main character in this performance.
Recreating Korean traditional theater in a modern style, the performance aims to find universality in its aboriginality.
At the closing ceremony, under the theme ``Africa'' and ``Passion,'' the finale is expected to be really eye-catching with Aaninka, Kumbaya and Dulsori playing African percussion instruments and dancing in the main performing area.
``Les Trottoirs de Jo'burg... Mirage a Gwacheon'' by Oposito (France) is a promenade show created for performance in streets, avenues and squares. Over the years, their journey has taken Oposito across the African continent, to Ethiopia and then to South Africa.
Oposito brings back from these travels homage to the women and children of the African continent.
``KU-DO'' by Theatre Momggol & the Lunatics (Korea and the Netherlands) is another show to pay attention to. It is a joint production of the Dutch outdoor theater troupe, Lunatics and the Korean physical theater troupe, Momggol.
The production crew received the inspiration for KU-DO from ``The Odyssey'' by the ancient Greek poet Homer.
It depicts the lives of people searching for new boundaries between themselves and their egos. Six actors convey a difficult yet interesting journey on a set with a box and a conveyor, with their ankles buried in sand.
It illustrates and expresses the strangers' journey in a comical way and the setting is like an imaginary space in a computer game where nothing is impossible.
Additionally, ``Seondal Baebijang'' by Theatre Company Saha, ``The Songs of the Beggars'' by Traditional Korean Madang Play Research Institute and ``Run Run Run'' by the Theater Company Masil will be performed.
For more information, call (02) 504-0938 or visit www.gcfest.or.kr.