What does it mean to create and watch performances amid the restrictions imposed by the pandemic? Thinking about the future of performing arts is no longer in the realm of imagination. It has become our reality. Faced with the dilemma over whether we should wait for the ban to be lifted or make groundbreaking attempts to overcome it, it is now perhaps the right time to create a new performance format. 

Between 2014 and 2018, [Things That Remember] was presented in five different places in three countries. Generally, a performance offers the same experience in the same time-space. However, Things That Remember invites each audience member to withdraw into more intimate, personal experience—isolated and separated from the crowd and wearing earphones. Ironically, this is the only possible form of performance in the current reality where everything is prohibited. Yet, the pandemic era calls for further changes. 

The natural and physical space of the real world is transformed into a three-dimensional simulated space through digital imagification. The dots, lines and sides that make up the digital image create a new spatial dimension in the virtual world. Those familiar with performing arts in the real world may not know what to look for in the digital image. Yet, it is clear that the changing concept of performance will deconstruct and redefine the concept and status of the audience. Present actions are somehow related to situations in the future. Such new attempts in the pandemic era will have an impact on the performing arts and audience of the future. The performing arts of the future will rise in the midst of the uncertain chasm caused by such new attempts.  

The existing [Things that Remember] was proceeded through research on sites. The project conducted in Suwon focused more on the objects rather than on the sites using a keyword, [Women] related to the objects. 
4 Vietnamese participants were chosen from those who we have worked together with back in 2016. However, one of them suddenly became unable to participate due to personal reasons that 3 participants joined in the end. They were 2 performers from Kinergie Studio and 1 media artist from Doc lab. Korean participants were chosen from an open casting call where 3 participants were selected: 2 interdisciplinary performers (originally specialized in traditional art fields) and 1 sound artist. Ultimately, 3 participants respectively from Vietnam and Korea were chosen making 6 participants in total. Then, the workshop began. 
Since the work process itself was simpler compared to that of the previous project, we had enough time. The most important thing, whether it is an international exchange activity or not, is to meet people who do not know each other and get acquainted. Accordingly, each of the participants led the morning warm-up sessions in their own ways such as having discussions to get to know each other and etc. It was when the partners with similar keywords began recording each other’s narrations when the visible intimacy was developed. As for the recording, the narration of the participant herself was first recorded in her mother tongue language, then her partner’s narration was recorded in the participant’s mother tongue language on behalf of her partner and vice versa. As they read each other’s narration in a tiny, cold recording booth, the participants formed bonding that went beyond the long discussion and workshop sessions. 

In order for the work to be successful, it requires each and every member to play one’s assigned role. However, one Vietnamese and one Korean member from the production team played multiple roles. In that, we would like to acknowledge them.
We were introduced to Ok-su Yeo living in Korea from the multicultural center as an interpreter. After the interview, we concluded that realistically, her Korean level was not advanced enough to translate the workshop process. Nonetheless, we decided to work with her. There were mainly two reasons for that. 
First of all, although most participants and the production team were able to communicate in English, we thought it was important to create a communication system in which each mother tongue language can be used as much as possible even if it made the process a bit redundant. Speaking and delivering messages in different languages when describing personal memories of objects and people result in a definite change in the thinking process. Most of the international exchange work is conducted in English, which affects how you think and the way you work. As for the project, Asian women (from Vietnam and Korea) who are considered the subordinates of our society came together. Accordingly, we could not overlook the power of language and culture in the context of our work where a keyword, ‘women’ was used. Power comes from language, which is the basis of communication and culture. Although it was redundant to translate and to record, all participants tried their best to work while respecting the culture and the sentiment as well as the memory of each individual by using the participant’s own mother tongue language. This required everyone to be patient and bare the awkwardness. This meant, we were very much accustomed to certain things; and whether this idea of familiarity is the answer is something to ponder upon for a long time.
Secondly, we decided to assign the role of an interpreter to Ok-su Yeo considering the fact that she is married to a Korean husband with two teenage sons, has a dual citizenship (Korean and Vietnam) and last but not least, due to her passion for culture and art. Interpretation aside, we thought she would be a good reference for the participating artists as a woman living in both Korea and Vietnam. We do not fully understand how the working mothers influence her children and herself through her work, but she strongly appealed its need during the interview. We were capable of supporting her needs that we decided to work with her. She successfully fulfilled her role as an interpreter but she further provided a perspective from a different angle allowing our work to become more vibrant.
As for the Korean, Mi-kyung Lee is a dramaturg who has been working with Creative Group NONI since 2014. She is also a mother of two daughters juggling life as a mother and a wife. The dramaturge, Mi-kyung Lee and our faith and experience working with her played a critical role in deciding Ok-su Yeo as the interpreter. Mi-kyung Lee met Ok-su Yeo for the Suwon project where they shared their daily life stories and supported each other while working on the project in which their roles extended beyond what was assigned to them. She did not only work as a dramaturg but also shared her personal stories as a participant, which inspired other participants. 
The personal stories of the objects shared by the two mothers were something that were not experienced (location and time period wise) by the workshop participants of different age groups. Although the participants have memories of similar situations or objects, they are not the stories of their own but rather, experienced as a third party. In that, the participants were able to understand that different memories can exist even under similar situations.

As mentioned above, the previous [Things that Remember] was proceeded by selecting the keywords from different locations; however, this time, keywords such as A ‘Woman I Know’ and ‘Women’ were used to focus on objects and other individuals (woman) related to the object. Rather than describing the concept or having extensive discussion, we focused on sharing everyday memories of an ordinary person. With narrowing down of the options, the narrations based on the participants’ memories became more personal and detailed compared to that of the existing ones. To maximize this affect, the creative team proceeded the project reducing the medium only to an auditory sensory. Accordingly, the audience listening to the narrations were able to imagine in more detailed manner. The participants only performed their movements for a certain duration of time in one location. The work this time attempted different things. In that, [Things that Remember] series seemed to have found a new method and direction.

Prologue

[Things that Remember] series, [Women], is a kind of meta-performance based on a basic concept of space, body, object, and memory where the performance is designed by the choices of actors and audience. The audience does not watch the performance in a traditional way, rather, they watch the actor and listen to the stories from the QR code while roaming around a space what was never meant to be used as a performing stage as they autonomously create the piece itself. 

During the pre-production, 19 out of 3 Vietnamese artists who we have worked together in Vietnam back in 2016 were brought to Korea. Then, 3 Korean artists were selected from an open casting call. The workshop was a process of sharing characters and events related to ‘A Woman I Know’ and exploring and selecting sensible expressions. The stories of the participants narrowed down to that of their grandmothers, mothers, and friends, which were then recorded in both Korean and Vietnamese in a QR code form to be explored by the audience later. The initial [Things that Remember] (Vietnam, 2016) started with the keyword, ‘Women and Labor.’ However, the keyword was changed to ‘Becoming an Object’ considering the artist and the characteristics of the performance sites. Then in Korea, 2018, the existing structure was actively dismissed under the theme of ‘A Woman I Know’ where the meaning and the relationship of stage, actor, and audience were newly established.

Stage

What defines a stage? Is it a place where the actor exists? Is it a place where the event occurs? Or is it a place, which we call, a stage? A stage is a core of where the incident takes place and develops. The installed stage, the appointed time, and the promised movement are like a ritual practiced on an altar. The stairs, hallways, floors, secret rooms, tables, and other things, which are essential elements of the characters and events in [Women] are not placed on the same stage but rather scattered throughout. They cannot be all grasped at a glance. The audience searches for the characters and events scattered throughout the space and constructs one’s own version of performance. 

The time and the space constructed on the stage begin to transform following the utmost unrestricted movements of the performers and the audience. The crucial motivation of the change is ‘choice’. The actor and the audience produce countless scenarios as they roam freely on the stage scattered making endless choices regards to where to begin, what to watch, which actor to follow, which angle to watch the performance from, and when to stop watching. This kind of system experimented with various possibilities regards to the positions of the stage and the audience; and also transformed a space what was never meant to be used as a performing stage into a space that can be freely observed like a stage. In [Woman], a fixed stage becomes unstable as it is dismantled. Nonetheless, it gains identity as an autonomous stage, which can exist anywhere and everywhere. 

Performer

Where is the subjectivity of a performer rooted in? During [Women]’s workshop, the participant describes the woman and the event of her choice and shares thoughts and questions with other participants as she refines and objectifies what was once an emotional story that comes from her personal experience. Then, the story is heard by the audience through the sound recorded in the QR code. There is more than one correlation between the story and the performance. If the audience does not scan the QR code, the performer can only connect with the audience through her performance whereas if the audience scans the QR code, the audience can connect with the story and the performance simultaneously. However, “when” the story and the performance will encounter cannot be determined. As if a linguistic structure of an ‘apple’ is completely unrelated to the meaning entailed in the word, ‘apple,’ what defines the relationship between the story and the performance depends on the ‘timing of the decisions made’ by the actor and the audience. Perhaps, it is meaningless to search for the most pleasing encounter between the two. There is only a myriad of cases that are accidently determined by the choices of a performer and an audience. 

In [Women], the rules that the performer must follow are the repeated number of times of her performance and the exchange of eye contact between the performers when deciding the ending. Other than that, the performer shares her story with the audience by continuously making choices every moment in regards to the place and the length of the performance as well as the point and the direction of the movement. If the audience decides to stay in a space even after the performer had left, the performance may still continue without the performer being present where the performer who had left can watch the other performer’s performance together with the audience somewhere else. As the performer becomes one who is ‘observing’ from one who is ‘observed,’ the concept of a performer, the one being ‘observed’ is dismantled.

Audience

When the audience enters a theater, a space separated from our daily lives, they are given obligations as an audience deprived of a freedom of choice. [Women] experimented with 2 types of performances on 2 different dates. One was where the audience followed the actor to different places and the other was where several performances were being performed simultaneously. The former method was dedicated to ‘roaming performance’ of [Things that Remember] whereas the latter method expanded the audience’s freedom for them to choose when the performance starts, where the stage is moved to, and how long the performance can be watched for. The audience does not just watch the performance as presented in a passive manner. They choose the location, the actor, and the order of events and constructs the performance themselves. 

Freud stated, “Subjectivity, never set once and for all, is structured as a relay of anticipations and reconstructions of events.” (note1) Through [Women], the audience gradually experiences the autonomy while they actually practice their freedom to choose how the performance can be designed, which was never present in existing performances. As the chronology of the performance is dismantled by the choice of the audience, the beginning and the end of the performance becomes something close to that of iterative structure rather than linear. The beginning and the end of the audience A does not coincide with the beginning and the end of the audience B, and the purpose of a traditional performance that aims at sharing the same experience through a single performance is lost. Every element of the performance is intertwined and it is up to the audience to find their own ways by drawing their own map. The audience may feel confused and lost; however, if they take a risk, they can create their own ways and watch the show. The subjectivity of the audience is acquired as the audience becomes the creator. 

Epilogue

In [Things that Remember] article (2016), ‘Existence of Memory’ was discussed whereas ‘Subjectivity of Memory’ was discussed this time. ‘Existence of Memory’ focused describing the history and the characteristics of a space, the type and the meaning of an object, and detailed description of the participant’s workshop whereas ‘Subjectivity of Memory’ intentionally excluded detailed and personal episode or object of the show as much as possible to reveal the concept of how the subjectivity of the stage, performer, and audience is obtained. Meta used to understand the structure of [Women] borrowed its meaning from what is called, ‘meta compound’ meaning ‘between, behind, and beyond,’ [which construct the show.] 

Memory is a trail of past events and experiences. What happened, happened and cannot be reversed. Memory always exists in the present dominating the present time and space at times. Memory in [Things that Remember] is not simply a trace of the past, rather an ‘actualization of time’ that can be reconstructed and interpreted with the eyes of the present. Just like how things become new when its existence is found, ‘Subjectivity of Memory’ is obtained at the moment when the choice is made to discover and reconstruct.

note1 Hal Foster, The Return of the Real, p320

In this text, I would like to look back on the meaning of [Things that Remember] by analyzing its three-year production journey through the different categories of location, collaborators and objects: one at the former Seoul Station (2014), one at the former Guui Water Intake Station (2015), another one at Long Bien Station in Vietnam in the spring of 2016 as well as the final one at the Espacio Memoria y Derechos Humanos (Space for Memory and Human Rights) in Argentina in the autumn of 2016. What should be discussed in terms of locations is the character implied within the space. As quoted in Adrian Forty’s Words and Building , Christian Norberg-Schulz said, “Character refers to the general atmosphere while denoting a concrete form of elements which make up a space. A true presentation has an intimate relationship with character.”(note1) Following this approach, it is possible to estimate the holistic form of this play by identifying the character of the respective locations. 

The former Seoul Station, designated as Historic Site No. 284 in 1981, began its operations in July, 1900, upon the completion of the Seoul-Incheon Railway.(note2) In 1925, the South Manchurian Railway Company built a new Renaissance style station and changed its name to Gyeongseong Station. After Korea regained its independence from Japanese colonial rule, the station’s name was changed to ‘Seoul Station’. In the 1960s, the South annex and West annex were additionally built, acting as separate functions from the main building. In 2004, the new station was built and the old one was closed down. After a reconstruction and renovation, the old station was re-opened as ‘Culture Station Seoul 284’ in August 2011. [Things that Remember] was performed by The Korean Ensemble Creative Group NONI and focused on the universal and historical aspects of Seoul Station. The performance and objects – which follows the traces of a hundred year-long history of the station – served as a medium for nostalgic reminiscence while the play was a site-specific, yet mobile watching experience, as if traveling through time.

The former Guui Intake Station, which had been functioning as Seoul’s purification plant since 1976, was closed down in 2011 after the completion of the Gangbuk Water Intake Station. After a renovation, it was transformed into Seoul Street Arts Center in 2015. Originally, an intake station is a facility that takes source water from rivers or reservoirs and delivers it to a closely located purification plant. Therefore, the ‘water’, the main character of this location, is the source of inspiration for [Things that Remember] held in 2015. Various symbolic aspects in relation to water attempt to link the work with the social memory of the Sewol ferry disaster. This can be seen as an attempt to find out how water as a material can be transformed into a new character that embodies social memory.

Long Bien Station was first opened in 1902 in Vietnam along with the launch of the Haiphong Line. Under the French colonial administration, Long Bien Bridge, designed by Gustave Eiffel (the man behind the Eiffel Tower), started its construction in 1889 and was completed in 1902. For over a hundred years, this bridge has connected both sides of the Hong River and has played a crucial role in Hanoi’s transportation. The city of Hanoi has decided to preserve Long Bien Bridge as an international architectural monument because of its rich historical legacy. Unlike the other two locations – Seoul Station and Guui Water Intake Station – of which the function of the space changed, Long Bien Station is characterized by contemporaneity. The daily environment and workplace of many lives such as the vibrant old market and residential houses where time has gone by, have become a major character as the station still holds its function.

In the case of Espacio Memoria y Derechos Humanos (Remembrance and human rights center) in Argentina, the historical character is more notable than with the other locations. Originally a naval academy, the space served as concentration camp when kidnapping and torture were committed during the military dictatorship in Argentina (1976-1983). As of today, various organizations such as the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo(note3) and the Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo(note4) are head- quartered there, delivering human rights support and artistic practice. It’s a place where strong will and action coexist in order to reveal the horrendous but true extent of Argentina’s dictatorship. Also, it is a venue where we have to question ourselves what the contemporaneity of the historical memory entails.

The next category I will attempt to discuss is the collaborators. These actors, who perform the play commune with the characteristics of the space, struggle but keep practicing to express the equal sense of the existence of object and human being. In addition, they trigger personal episodes which connect the past with the present. The space and objects, which are nothing more than materials, expand in virtue of the actors’ energy and completely turn into a new space. During a two- week workshop, these collaborators practice being objects and study the energy of slowness and pause. A mission is assigned to them: to give new life to daily and ordinary objects through the vitality of individual and special memory.

In the plays performed at the former Seoul Station and Guui Intake Station, the performers come from different genres such as parkour, traditional performing arts and martial arts. As for Long Bien Station, the actors were chosen from genres such as parkour, traditional and contemporary dance with the participation of Doclab(note5) as a collaborator in the video team. In the case of Espacio Memoria y Derechos Humanos in Argentina, the actors were active in fields such as circus, contemporary dance and puppet shows. The co-creations, in collaboration with these actors in [Things that Remember], can be a picture or a video through a QR code or an actual performance on site. Therefore, a collaborating performer should be an independent actor/actress – not a passive practitioner – who thinks deeply and questions things. Above all, they should always be aware of bodily gestures coming from their own life and experiences, which can be fortified by constantly practicing it. Thus, actors and actresses from various fields and the expression of individual or social memory related to a location are categories with imaginative and potential for change.

The next category focuses on the object. Along with the space, the ordinary objects are in charge of the holistic mise-en-scène. The director Kyung-hee Kim argues that, “Death converts a human being into material. Therefore, the body of a human being is at last material,” and that objects become a bowl or a body that embodies life. What is meant by objects coming back alive is the actual moment of gaining memory. One important aspect that should be understood in the context of this play is to keep an eye on how objects are being recreated into new objects of memory.

What is particularly prominent is the huge installation which reminds us of a rotating organ clock. It was made and served as kinetic theater for the [That’s him, It](2014). This installation was given a name and role in the following plays; Kinetic Theater at the Seoul Station, Tear Collector at Guui Intake Station and Clock at Espacio Memoria y Derechos Humanos. However, the audience was able to understand this structure through its various imaginations and symbols. Whatever name was given to the installation, it clearly attracted people by its embodied curiosity and fantasy of controlling time.

Other objects were installed in the plays such as a traveller’s bag, a ticket punch, rubber shoes, a thread skein, a typewriter, glasses, military boots, a necktie, a telephone, a sewing machine, chairs, glass cups, and others at the former Seoul Station. Objects such as a parasol, charms, a flashlight, a mask, a tax bill, a dog leash, a dog bowl, piles of clothing, shoes, a desk, a heating machine, a mirror, a dead bird, garbage, a typewriter, a sewing machine, a glass cup, an IV, a life vest and a safety helmet were installed at the Guui Intake Station. Objects such as a brazier for burning money, a lantern for railway signals, birdcages and packaging boxes found along the railways of Long Bien Station were displayed. For Espacio Memoria y Derechos Humanos, objects from episodes such as an umbrella, a chair, a notebook, a needle and injector, a telephone, a car, blankets, a bathtub, forks and knives, military boots and thread skeins were installed along with other objects like glass cups, a sewing machine, a piano, shoes and the main installation, the Clock. 

The role of these objects can be easily understood if you think of ‘the eye of the object’ which observes every single thing while existing in one place. It is as if inferring and recalling the deceased ones through what they have left. Perceiving the horizontal existence of object and human being, the eye of the object shows that the memories are alive and lets us experience them. ‘The eye of the object’ can be associated with the Internet of Things (IoT), also known as the Fourth Industrial Revolution of future society in which objects are linked to artificial intelligence, track the user ’s activities and turn them into valuable data.

Throughout this text, the composition of this play was analyzed through three different categories. If it was the realization of universal memory from the past at the formal Seoul Station, it attempted an emotional shift from the materiality as water to the social memory at the Guui Intake Station. The performance at the Long Bien Station was a piece that sought the transposition between object and human being and between death and life through occupying space by ‘becoming an object’. At the Espacio Memoria y Derechos Humanos in Argentina – a place of kidnapping, torture, violence and murder – the play attempted to question and has a new understanding of history, based on personal memories of actors living in times of contemporaneity as well as testimonies from kidnapped survivors.

The structure of [Things that Remember] performed by NONI cannot be understood at a glance. Rather than being one spectacular format, complex perspectives are scattered here and there within the frame of the play. The different perspectives on location, objects, performances and the pictures and videos from the QR codes as well as others’ perspectives on the audience while moving during the play all add their own layer while building a strong framework of the work. The reality of the performing location – in other words, not an artificial stage but a space of reality – enables a multitude of perspectives. In spite of this unique characteristic which can be compared with the reality of a black box performance, these diverse perspectives may disperse the subject of the play or blur the boundaries by not clarifying how the play starts and what the play is. However, contemporary arts today continue to experiment as such while understanding and expanding the liquidity of these types of circumstances. Hence, multiple perspectives and coincidental elements rather become the fourth structural element of [Things that Remember]. A dog coincidentally showed up at the performing location. A train entered a platform during the performance, and an installation suddenly stopped at a very strange and delicate moment due to a lack of oil supply. Cold weather conditions made it hard to watch the performance, and objects suddenly disappeared. In fact, a car that was at the performance in Argentina disappeared from the venue. So, in- stead, an image of a car had to be drawn with paint. All these uncontrollable elements serve as components that make every performance new. This is similar to the concept of ’the realization of situation’ mentioned in the book Relational Aesthetics(note6) by Nicolas Bourriaud.

These categories could only be in a state of flux because of the nature of the performance rather than most components of space, time, performance and object safely constructed during the performance. The components of [Things that Remember] are far from an immovable concept such as a safe arrival and settlement. On the contrary, almost every element has a characteristic of flotation, drift and nomad such as floating images, unsettle sounds, unstable wifi connection and also flowing time and moving space. Hence, the audience can be engaged in various experiences, and thus enable various interpretations, whether it is about accessing or focusing on certain elements. This is where more subjective and active participation is required than indoor performance.

What is this performance – composed of images of characters owned by space, memories and gestures of actors, objects occupying the space – trying to tell us? A coexistence and reinterpretation of memory and object and of time and space pro- vide a state of bardo.(note7) Bardo is described as a status of transition or boundary as a gap space meaning the border line space, a mid-way from a status of sleeping to that of dreaming and vice versa. Bardo refers to a status of transition, enlightenment and perception. In virtue of the occurrence of a gap, we are able to question the existing prejudices and biases at last. [Things that Remember] does not present a status of clear division between here and there, but it is an artistic practice which enables us to experience the crossroad of choice, questioning and deep thinking, and at the same time, is an art of ascetic life in the hope of a recognition change.

note1 Adrian Forty, Words and Buildings, p.163, Norberg-Schulz, 1976, p.7
note2 In Doosan Encyclopedia
note3 The Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo (Asociación Madres de Plaza de Mayo) is an association of Argentine mothers whose children were disappeared during the state terrorism of the military dictatorship, between 1976 and 1983. In Wikipedia
note4 Accompanied with the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, a well-known human rights organization, The Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo (Asociación Civil Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo) is with the goal of finding the kidnapped children during the Argentina’s dictatorship. While the Mothers focus on finding them the Grandmothers try to find their grandchildren (an estimated 500) of their daughters and daughters-in-law who were kidnapped during their pregnancy. In World Korea News
note5 Doclab is a documentary film/video research institution established within Goethe Institut in Hanoi in 2009. The founder is Nguyen Trinh Thi.
note6 Nicolas Bourriaud, Esthétique relationnelle, p.153~p.155
note7 Sogyal Rinpoche, The Tibetan book of living and dying, p.189~p.192