LocationSeoul Performing Arts Festival / Platform-LDateOctober 11 – 13, 2024
Concept, Sound, Technology, DirectorByungjun KwonCreative TeamTaekmin Kim, Jumi Lee, Yujin LeeDramaturgySeoungho HamProduction ManagersJisun Parkm Bongmin ChoiLighting DesignHyun KimProductionRobot Theater Company, Producer Group DOTCommissionSeoul Performing Arts Festival, Arts Korea LabPremiereSeoul Performing Arts Festival 2024CooperationPlatform-L
Performance Introduction
This work is an exploration of gravity, friction, and the act of human walking, questioning the meaning of
bipedalism and what it signifies to walk on the ground. The stage, made of steel plates, presents new
possibilities for space and movement, showcasing an experimental approach to movement that utilizes the
properties of steel and magnets.
Performance Theme
Since the emergence of modern science, scientific thought has become the dominant ideology governing
the epistemology and methods of the time. Consequently, uncertainty, ambiguity, faith, and the
supernatural have been confined within a jar of taboos.Remarkably, science has also become the sole
producer of myths. Creation stories like the Big Bang and heroes like atoms define humanity and nature
from the sacred peaks of relativity and quantum mechanics. On the Bird's Day seeks to open the jar of
taboos and construct an inner (soul) essence of this new mythology.
Content of the Performance
This work is the first performance in the series On the Birds Day, exploring "The Anxiety of Thirteen Ahae."
If the thirteen Ahae depicted in Lee Sang's "Ogamdo" symbolize the anxieties of early 20th-century
modernity, the thirteen Ahae in On the Birds Day represent the anxieties of the present in the 21st
century.These figures serve as shamans, connecting the heavens and the earth, as well as gods and
humans. Before embarking on their journey into the world, they have just been born as new mechanical
beings and are beginning to learn how to stand on two feet and walk. With each step, they experience
gravity and friction, moving in accordance with the human act of walking. Their movements transform into
dance, and the thirteen children create their own choreography within the world atop the steel plates.
ROTC
The Robot Theater Company (ROTC) is an artist collective centered around media artist Byungjun Kwon,
featuring collaboration between artists and engineers. Kwon, who has worked across various disciplines
such as theater, dance, and music, aims to present a new form of performance that integrates robots and
human performers through these collaborations. This initiative seeks to explore and advance the
possibilities of "Mechanical Theater," investigating the coexistence of machines and humans in both
performance stages and exhibition spaces.