It’s a pretty good month this month, with plenty of variety, and a backlog of Kpop performances beginning to be unleashed on the calendar.
Special events: Edinburgh
The Edinburgh International Festival and Fringe is back. There are nine different Korea-linked productions in the Fringe; and in the main Festival you might just be able to get a ticket to see the ever-popular Seong-jin Cho; there’s also an international contemporary dance production involving a Korean choreographer. Throughout the month of August the KCC and KTO are running a mini cultural centre in a hotel near the Usher Hall, with screenings and other activities, and there’s also two walking tours of the city centre, and Dovecot Studios will be hosting their usual Dazzle exhibition, which will include work by Misun Won.
If you haven’t booked accommodation yet, though, you’ll be lucky to find anything affordable. LKL’s pick of the Fringe productions is BreAking, featuring the Korea National Contemporary Dance Company and music by Jambinai’s Lee Ilwoo.
Special events: Stourbridge
The International Festival of Glass, 26 – 29 August, has a focus on artists from Korea, Japan and China. The exhibitions will run until the end of September, but during the festival there’s plenty of Korea related cultural activity at the Ruskin Glass Centre, and a special performance of music, dance and fashion on 27 August.
In the London area:
Performance
- Homeland, a new play by HeeJin Kim, is on at the White Bear Theatre, 2-6 August
- Kim Woojin’s “Still Dream” Tour comes to the Islington Academy on 3 August
- Rocking Doll play the Troxy on 15 August
- Former Wonder Girl SUNMI performs at the Troxy on 21 August
- There’s a K-pop festival in Barnet on 28 August featuring Rocking Doll and Kaachi among others
- Junny, Blaze and DJ Minjeong are at the Garage on 28 August
Discussions
- The KCC has two literature discussions this month: Pachinko and Kim Jiyoung Born 1982 on 3 August and a conversation with poet Hakjung Kim on 17 August
- The Universal Peace Federation is holding a conference entitled Global Culture of Peace and Peaceful Reunification of the Korean Peninsula on 4 August
- There’s a Temple Food demonstration with Ven Beop Song on 10 August
Exhibitions
- The KCC’s Hanji exhibition runs until 13 August
- JeeYoung Lee’s installation, Maiden Voyage, is at NOW Gallery all month
- Love Under the Blue Moon, featuring Sang Woon Nam and Ji-Young Hong, is at J/M Gallery until 14 August
- The Coronet Theatre unveils its Choi Jeong-hwa installations, part of their exciting and ambitious Tiger is Coming festival, on 31 August.
Screenings
- The KCC in collaboration with Birkbeck has a season of documentary screenings entitled Living Memories, all of which look worth your time
Everything else
- There’s a Kpop / hip-hop night at Fire London on 5 August
- We haven’t yet heard of any liberation day celebrations in New Malden
Publications
- Olga Fedorenko’s Flower of Capitalism: South Korean Advertising at a Crossroads is out now
- We’re expecting the translation of Song of Arirang: The Story of a Korean Rebel Revolutionary in China this month – though have been disappointed on this score before
- If you enjoyed Elisa Shua Dusapin’s Winter in Sokcho, you’ll be wanting her follow-up novel The Pachinko Parlour, out later in August.