Park Ark interprets Korean seasonal customs in contemporary dance
Park Ark’s video series depicting Korean traditional seasonal customs in contemporary dance won the best creator award from the Korea Craft & Design Foundation (KCDF).
The KCDF and the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism selected and supported 12 creators to produce videos related to seasonal customs and the 24 seasonal divisions, and Park’s creation won the top accolade, April 9.
Park’s videos “Winter,” “Summer” and “Spring” were recognized for interpreting Korean seasonal divisions through contemporary dance, corresponding to the contest’s aim of modernizing the ideas of seasonal customs.
Park is an artist who works with video and virtual reality (VR) and is currently enrolled in the graduate program of the School of Film, TV &Multimedia at Korea National University of Arts (K-ARTS).
“Though this project ran for about six months, I had been contemplating the idea for a much longer time. As I studied at K-ARTS, I had opportunities to make friends with other students specializing in dance, music and traditional arts. Through them, I realized many traditions are fading away and thought of ways to capture them somehow,” Park said in a phone interview with The Korea Times, Monday.
Park considers his video project as a “bus stop” of traditions as of 2021.
“Nowadays, tradition is considered something far from everyday life, passed down to only a few. I want my videos to preserve the tradition from the perspective of the present and my contemporaries as well as the future generations to come visit Korea’s seasonal traditions of 2021,” Park said.
He chose to interpret the tradition physically rather than verbally.
“We learn about traditions, including seasonal customs, from books. However, we memorize things better through senses and experience than language. Dance is a powerful genre, capable of defying the limitations of language as it conveys from breathing to the slightest tremor of movements. I thought it would be meaningful to portray seasonal images in dance, only if I could succeed.”
Park collaborated with choreographers Kim Jong-woo of Team Yuwol and Oh Ji-eun.
“I provided them with the words explaining seasonal divisions — such as rain for ‘usu’ and frog for ‘gyeongchip’ — and asked them to dance their personal images of the seasons,” he said. “Spring was the trickiest as winter and summer have clearer, universal images such as shivering or fanning, respectively. So I cast two dancers for Spring to reflect their personal feelings on the season.”
Park described himself as a modern Korean who has a deep interest in traditions.
“I like electronic and hip-hop music and they have certain similarities with traditional Korean rhythm. I am working on combining those types of music, although I am not sure whether it would be in the format of a film or virtual reality. But I will continue to connect tradition with modern tastes,” he said.