Community of Parting (2019) traces a different approach to borders, translation, and aesthetic mediation by invoking the ancient shamanic myth of the Abandoned Princess Bari and engaging female Korean shamanism as an ethics and aesthetics of memory and mutual recognition across time and space. Rooted in oral storytelling and embodied by female shamans, the myth about … [Read More]
Category: Shamanism
SOAS seminar: Shamans and Confucian Public Officials
The first SOAS seminar of the month: Shamans and Confucian Public Officials: Religion and Social Recognition in Korea Dr Antonio J. Domenech (Universidad de Málaga) Friday 1 March 2019, 5:15pm Room B104, Brunei Gallery, SOAS University of London This seminar is free, but registration is required. Register here Abstract The general objective of this presentation … [Read More]
The LKL quiz of the year 2017
I’m currently going through my 2017 press cuttings and trying to make sense of them, in the hope that as in (some) previous years I’ll be able to pull together a series of posts summarising some of the most newsworthy stories of the year. In case I don’t manage to get that done (after all, … [Read More]
2016 travel diary 4: National Folk Museum, Kim Soonam’s shaman portraits and the journey to Chungnam
Jongno, Seoul, Monday 16 May 2016, 9am A visit to the National Folk Museum The good thing about having a local companion sense-check your travel plans is that they can point out weaknesses that only a local is likely to know about. So when Chris saw that I was planning a day trip from Seoul … [Read More]
Festival film review: Manshin – Ten Thousand Spirits
What is it that makes Park Chan-kyong’s biopic of Korea’s national shaman so compelling on so many levels? Right from the start, the narrative grips you. We meet Kim Geum-hwa, the subject of the movie, praying for the success of the film. She also prays for the health of the film crew, and asks the … [Read More]
Park Chan-kyong at Iniva – worth an investment of time
If you go along to Park Chan-kyong’s solo show at Iniva, make sure you set aside enough time – at least a couple of hours. And those of you who went to his talk at the Korean Cultural Centre in November last year will wish you had been better prepared on what he was going to … [Read More]
Manshin: Ten Thousand Spirits, at LKFF 2014
This is one of the films that LKL will be looking forward to as part of this year’s Korean Film Festival: Manshin: Ten Thousand Spirits 만신, Dir Park Chan-kyong (박찬경), 2013 Odeon Covent Garden, Monday 10 Nov, 8:30pm | Aberystwyth Arts Centre, Thursday 20 Nov, 5:30pm A documentary spanning a lifetime, Manshin centres on a … [Read More]
ARCO 2007: a Huge Korean festival in Madrid this February
Just received from the organisers of ARCO 2007 in Madrid. Film, music, dance, literature and of course contemporary art. To call it a feast undersells it. And that’s not all: this is just the stuff they know about already. There’s some other stuff they haven’t finalised. I haven’t taken all this in yet, but I … [Read More]