Cha Yeonså‘s performance invites the voices of musicians to embody the twilight described in poet Kim Eon-hee's "At Dusk" (「황혼이 질 때면」). Cha references these entities as those who “'mumble even after the end', 'chew on my head with soft teeth,' and 'swallow me,' appearing like children, the elderly, or frogs, and vanishing with a smile. Three bath attendants perform a yellow soul bath for the dead and the living in an unfamiliar environment, traversing in the black-and-yellow boundary between the end and a new beginning.
Non-binary singer-songwriters June Green and Young_An present a duet version of "Swallow" (original song by Young_An, arranged by Young_An and June Green), while Ven. Donghwan performs the Buddhist chant calling the Bodhisattva (Inlowangbosal) who leads souls across the river of paradise. The overlapping and diverging voices traverse the boundaries between divided bodies, places, and times — uttering 'heol, heol, heol,' a sound that is neither a scream nor a sigh, but the sound of the wind — from the deep throat.
Cha Yeonsä's performance takes place at Frieze Seoul 2024 on Friday September 6, 4pm.
Frieze LIVE 2024 is presented in partnership with DYAD, a private members’ club launching in the heart of Cheongdam in 2025.
Credit
Directed by Cha Yeonså
Performed by June Green, Young_An, Ven. Donghwan
Duet Arrangement for ‘Swallow’: June Green & Young_An (The original song by Young_An)
Sound Design for the chant of calling Bodhisattva ‘Inlowangbosal(인로왕보살)’: Lee Solyoub
Spatial Design: Kim Hye Jeong
About the artists
Cha Yeonså (b.1997) Yeonså cuts and draws unclaimed bodies, bugs, and poetic words, and prepares the places for them to hang through the recent drawing series Festival. The process of gazing at the ends that never end and the broken periods within them takes care of the body(s) that is numb, nightmare-seized, and open. Cha has presented solo shows To me / Who has no flesh / Or bone, SAPY Gray Room, Seoul, KR (2024.9.3~9.13); KKOCH-DA-BAL is still there, Sahng-up Gallery Euljiro, Seoul, KR (2024); This Unbelievable Sleep, Energywhoisshe Games, Online(2023); Every mosquito feels the same, TINC, Seoul, KR (2022); and participated in group shows such as Tongue of Rain, Art Sonje Center, Seoul, KR, curated by Moon Jiyoon(2024); The Motel, Misungjang Motel Hongdae, Seoul, KR, curated by Hong Jiyoung(2023). Cha has directed the live performance Mosquitolarvajuice, Les601, Seoul, KR(2022), along with the larvae that ‘greet another day, another morning after death.’(quoted from Kim Eon Hee’s poem, "Another Day, Another Morning".
Ven. Donghwan, who entered monastic life at the age of seven and became a monk at seventeen, is a certified trainee of Yeongsanjae (Celebration of Buddha’s Sermon on Vulture Peak Mountain), a National Heritage. As a leading professional of ‘Eosan’ (Buddhist ritual music and performance) within the Jogye Order of Korean Buddhism, Ven. Donghwan is dedicated to preserving and transmitting the traditions of Eosan, including the annual performance of Beompae and Eosan at the Jingwansa Suryukjae (Water and Land Ceremony of Jingwansa Temple), another National Heritage. Additionally, traditional religious rituals are revitalized through innovative adaptations of ‘Hwa-cheong’ (Buddhist ritual chant) for contemporary audiences, such as in a memorial ritual for the Seoul Halloween crowd crush.
June Green (b.1995) absorbes herself in the beauty of the ugly and hurtful. Green explores and reveals ambiguous existences that transcend the boundaries defined by the world through music, photography, writing, drag, and body movements. Recently, they have been deeply immersed in the transformation of their voice, body, mind, and perspective over the past few years, working to bring together the fragments of the past with the present. June Green performed their original songs for the closing ceremony of the 24th Korean Queer Film Festival (Art House Momo, 2024), and at their self-curated performance & party event <GENDER THAN EVER>, presented performances of original songs, along with their self-portrait photos and autobiographical writings.
Young_An (b. 1996) receives and transmits. Through singing, composing, performing, writing, drawing and etc, it aims to become a passage or an empty container. It thrives to reveal the sharp tone breaking out of collision between the holy/vulgar, pure/filthy, good/evil, vulnerable/violent.
Former exhibitions. Young_An had presented a duo show One Before Zero, Space ink, Seoul, KR (2024) as a singer_songwriter, performer, co-director, and participated in the live Performance Mosquitolarvajuice, Les601, Seoul, KR, directed by Cha Yeonså (2022) as a main performer, singer-songwriter.