Blog: Last days at Performing Arts Market in Seoul
Tisdag, 12 Oktober 2010 14:50
Find out what happens in Seoul and get the latest news on performance art in this blog by our advisor at large.
By Annu Kevarinmäki
The Nordic showcases in Seoul were organized by the SIDance festival as a result of lasting negotians with the Nordic partners during the past years. This year the Nordic Culture Fund supported the Nordic participation in the festival. The showcase was curated by the SIDance artistic director Mr. Lee Jong-Ho, who had chosen three Nordic performing companies for the programme: Susanna Leinonen Company (FIN), Kitt Johson X-act (DK) and Pars Pro Toto (IS).
I went to see the Nordic showcases at the SIDance festival venue, Seoul Art Space, on Wednesday night when the Finland Dance Info also held a reception for the dancers and the festival audience after the show.
The show sold out on both nights and presented three very different performances by internationally touring companies.
The PAMS shows how a continuous, targeted promotion and marketing can bring concrete results and a lasting collaboration between the partners – that again can open new, unthought of contacts for the partners involved.
Thursday evening PAMS had organized a tour for the festival participants to the Seoul Art Space_Mullae at the Arts Village of Mullae, in the southwest of Seoul, an area that has since 2003 been transformed from textile and machinery factory buildings to artist spaces, today presenting more than 70 artist studios.
Seoul Art Space_Mullae offers one-stop production facilities including artist hostel, theatre scene, recording studio, editing suite and an exhibition space. The main programme of Seoul Art Space_Mullae includes production assistance for artists, artist incubator programme, an international exchange programme and an artistic educational programme for youth.
www.kittjohnson.dk
www.choreographer.fi
www.larastef.is/ParsProToto.aspx
www.mullae.seoulartspace.or.kr
Photo: Annu Kevarinmäki
Blog: Tuesday, Opening Reception, booth exhibitions and Korean dance Showcases, PAMS Night
Pomp and splendor! The festival was launched on Monday in an opening ceremony hosted by the Korean musical actress Ms. Jun-Myeon Park, whose performance Riverside Salon had been also chosen as one of the PAMS Choice events and Mr Yang Jung-ung, director of Peer Gynt performance, also shown in the PAMS programme this year.
An essential part of the festival is the five day booth exhibition at the Korean National Theatre, the main venue of the festival. In two floors, the exhibition includes presenters from the Korean performing arts scene and international guest presenters. This year the international presenters came from e.g. Finland, Colombia and Australia. 
Photo: Annu Kevarinmäki
In the showcases the festival is presenting a selection of the Korean performers having the standard for and most to gain from an overseas exposure. In the artist after talk, the 26 year old Kim Jae-Duk expressed that he wishes to be seen as a vital artist, and after having seen the multi-talented coreographer, dancer, singer and rock musician in action, there was no doubt. There was nothing he couldn’t do.
In the evening the festival had a night off. We cabbed to a the off-venue, a club in the Hong-Dae district where local bands performed for the festival guests. Ska and letkajenkka á la Seoul! Mr. President, thank you for the dance.
http://pams.or.kr/AE/?sub_num=14#
Monday, Nordic Focus Session at Performing Arts Market in Seoul
Photo: Annu Kevarinmäki
On Monday the artistic PAMS programme had not yet started, but the festival kicked off with a Nordic Focus Session that the Nordic Culture Point had been invited to speak at.
Seven speakers from the Nordic countries had been invited to give a presentation of the performing arts scene in their own country through a case study of the festivals they represent.
Nordic Culture Point and the two other speakers, Virve Sutinen (Dansens Hus Stockholm) and Tove Bratten (Norwegian Association of Performing Arts), were to give an overview of the artist collaboration in the Nordic region.
The focus on the Nordic session was on the present situation in the Nordic countries, the structure of the funding system and policy, and the possibility for collaboration and participation.
On behalf of Nordic Culture Point I presented an overview of the structure for the Nordic cultural funding, concentrating on the opportunities offered by Nordic Culture Point and Nordic Culture Fund for performing arts professionals from outside the Nordic countries. 
The other speakers were Henrik Køhler (Childrens Theatre Int. Festival/Teater Centrum), Kai Amberla (Finland Festivals). Ba Clemetsen (Ibsen Stage Festival/The National Theatre of Norway), Anna Efraimsson (The Swedish Arts GrantsCommittee), Jens Folmer (Arhus Festival), Thorbjørn Gabrielsen (Stamsund International Theatre Festival) and Magnus Bäckström (Uppsala Konsert & Kongress).
The session, where approximately two hundred people attended, was moderated by Mr. Lee Jongho the Artistic Director of SIDance Festival.
After the Nordic Session the embassies of Denmark and Finland invited the session participants and guests for a reception at the venue restaurant where the Nordic delegates were wished warmly welcome by the local representatives.
You can see the full programme of the session here: http://pams.or.kr/AE/?sub_num=16
Sunday, Arrival in Seoul
Nea Leo (Taivex), Janne Ikäheimo (Nomadi Productions), Lee Dong-Min, KimSeo-Ryung and Kim Gru-ru, Outi Järvinen (Zodiak-Center for New Dance) andMarinella Jaskari (Helsinki City Theatre) discussing common issues forproducers in Korea and Finland. Photo: Annu Kevarinmäki
It only took an hour after my arrival that I was invited to join the fast paced cultural programme organised by the Korean Arts Management (KAMS) to the Finnish dance professionals delegation in Seoul.
This year Performing Arts Market in Seoul (PAMS) is collaborating with Dance Info Finland, Danish Dance Information centre and SIDance (Seoul International Dance Festival), and have put together a Nordic showcase presenting three Nordic dance companies. Susanna Leinonen Company (FIN), Kit Johson X-act (DK) and Pars Pro Toto (IS) are all performing in Seoul in the Nordic showcase on three nights during the festival that is gathering the cream of the Asian performing arts audience.
Nordic Culture Point was invited by PAMS to join the Nordic Focus Session organised by the festival, and to give a presentation on the structure of Nordic cultural co-operation and funding.
The background for the Finnish dance professionals visit to PAMS is an agreement between the Dance Info Finland and Korean Arts Management, under the heading Korea-Finland Connection, to develop performing arts managers network between Korea and Finland in order to encourage collaboration and exchange of contemporary performing arts.
As I joined the group on a Sunday evening, they were heading out for the Loop Art Space in the lively, rather trendy neighborhood of Seo-Kyo Dong. Loop functions as a laboratory for experimental art, focusing its activities on searching for young emerging artists, promoting connections between visual arts and other genres, establishing international networks of alternative spaces and supporting creative activities and better environment for exhibition.
The meeting was set up as a networking opportunity between the local young producers connected with Loop and the Finnish dance professionals. As the rice wine pitchers were frequently refilled, I needed to leave the group to get ready for my presentation the following day.
http://english.danceinfo.fi/news/now-at-dance-info-finland/korea-finland-connection
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