performing arts-French festival

▲ This photo, provided by the Korea Arts Management Service, shows "Snow, Snow, Snow." (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap)

▲ This photo, provided by the Korea Arts Management Service, shows "Haribo Kimchi." (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap)

▲ This poster, provided by the organizers, shows the Avignon Festival. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap)

performing arts-French festival

Korean works, including Han Kang's, to make return to Avignon Festival after 28 years

By Lee Minji

SEOUL, May 21 (Yonhap) -- Nine Korean works have been invited to the Avignon Festival set to take place in France this summer, organizers said Thursday, marking the first time in 28 years Korean-language productions will officially take the stage at one of the world's most prestigious performing arts festivals.

Works have been selected from a range of genres, from "KIN: Yeonhee Project I," which fuses traditional dance with modern dance, to "Snow, Snow, Snow," a project based on pansori, or traditional Korean opera, according to the Korea Arts Management Service, which has partnered with the festival committee of the Avignon Festival.

The works also convey themes and messages spanning various social issues -- ranging from those specifically linked to Korea to those a present-day global audience can relate to.

"Island Story," sheds light on state violence through the voices of those who suffered in the 1948 Jeju uprising, one of the bloodiest state massacres of civilians during the ideological conflicts of the era, while "1 Degree Celsius," focuses on the universal issue of global warming.

Among the highlights, Nobel laureate Han Kang's novel "We Do Not Part" will be presented at a lecture-performance titled "Oiseau," with French actress Isabelle Huppert and Korean actress Lee Hye-young reading the first chapter of the novel, which depicts the tragedy of the Jeju massacre.

Tiago Rodrigues, the director of Avignon Festival, said he hopes Han's work would serve as a space for Korean and European arts to encounter each other.

"We wanted (the work of) Han Kang would also be a space of encounter between the French arts, the European arts and Korean literature," Rodrigues said in a pre-recorded interview. "So in that sense, it is an invitation to one of the great writers of our time but also it opens a space of collaboration and invention."

Other selected works include "Muljil," "Cuckoo," "The History of Korean Western Theatre" and "Haribo Kimchi," with the latter three written by playwright Koo Ja-ha, the first Asian recipient of the prestigious International Ibsen Award.

The festival, which runs in the southern French city of Avignon from July 4-25, has designated Korean as its official guest language this year to mark the 140th anniversary of diplomatic ties between South Korea and France.

The festival will make its Asian debut in South Korea in October as part of the Seoul Performing Arts Festival.

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