The visual theater CCOT creates performances through materials from the visual arts and poetry. In public spaces, they try different projects bringingout what is deep inside in people. Before founding the company, its director LEE Cheolsung made his debut as a poet and published collections of poems with the publishing company Moonji. While studying at the School of Visual Theater in Israel in 2000, he established CCOT. The company produces works that transform streets and daily lives into artistic spaces and that explore the depth of life. In addition to actively creating and performing in Korea, they were invited by numerous European street arts festivals such as the Chalon dans la rue (France) and Fira Tàrrega (Spain), thus sharing Korean street arts around the world.

Interview

Q.What made you establish the visual theater CCOT?

LEE Cheolsung: Before founding the visual theater CCOT in 2000, I used to write poems in my room. But one day, I felt certain resistance from my body. It was as if my body were screaming, telling me to save it. So I thought that I would need to do something other than what I had been doing. It was in this context that I met the theater and I immediately fell into it. I used to write poems so I wondered if I could create performances just like writing poems. In other words, I wanted to reflect my auteurism in performances I create. At that time, Korea didn’t have any place where I could study this so I went to school in Israel. Soon after that, I formed a company and began to create works. The name of the company CCOT, which means “flower” in Korean, symbolizes what is on-site and ephemeral. A flower in full blossom is so splendid and beautiful but after it withers, it feels so futile. Unlike other genres, the performing arts don’tleave anything behind, just like a flower that disappears sadly. That is why Ilike the performing arts.

LEE Cheolsung: In general,artists could start creating something from verbal elements like a message, theme and context. But we start creating works mostly from materials. So what we do could be called a “performance of materials.” If a poem directly expresses things like “me,” “you,” “us,” “love” and “solidarity,” it loses its power. The more the poet argues for something, the more they lose power. Instead, if the poet talks about a “stone,” ”stream,” “weed,” “sand” and “swaying grass,” that poem often becomes powerful. The same is true for the performing arts. The performing arts are basically synthetic so artists can deal with a huge number of materials. They can tell stories from diverse materials on the street including audiovisual elements, shapes and spaces. Taking "Rock, Rolling" as an example, I first experimented with throwing stones on the street just like ducks and drakes. I then imagined a person rolling like a stone. Such an image led me to Sisyphus from Greek mythology. I believe that such a way of starting from materials to reach a big theme makes a performance armed with poetic power.

HA So Jung: "Rock, Rolling" started with an image of a stone and homeless person. Once I have an image, I keep on imagining, finally finding my own story. At the beginning of creating the performance, I thought about what a “stone” would be. Then I experimented with and explored numerous images coming from a stone. For example, like a stone, a person is kicked by others. He also rolls everywhere, stops somewhere and gets out again to keep rolling. Meanwhile, he is solid like a stone made of multiple layers with passing time. Finally, this person resembling a stone does throw a stone. So what was the most important for the performance was “stone.” Rich interpretation starting from stone formed a basis for the work.

LEE Cheolsung: Making many works has led us to have some main directions. First, there are community-based performances like "Massager", "Self-Massager" and "Paper Human". Other performances go deep inside people’s nightmare or fantasy to unveil isolated individuals’ stories. Examples of this are "The Wall" and "Rock, Rolling". These works have worm-like characters who are invisible in society or who look drunk or dirty. I believe that humans are natural beings before they become social beings. A person, who is a natural being rather than any other identity, faces so many things in society. In "The Wall", a drunken person is going home in the evening. He is so drunk that he sees fantasy on a big wall in the city. The wall has a big mural painting of a tree. When the person urinates on the wall, the painting disappears instantly. "Rock, Rolling" also depicts a person’s sentiment. The person wants to see his daughter. In society, he is a dangerous person throwing stones on the street. In the performance, the police come to him and start fighting with teargas. With personal desires expressed, resistance to oppression comes out. Through this work, we wanted to ask a question about what our existence in society looks like. I think that an artist is a spiritual medium. Doing what could be called a “rite,” artists make such questions visible while also sharing and relieving something and making people empathize. Creating works, I suddenly found myself doing these things.

LEE Cheolsung: "Paper Window" and "A Giant’s Desk" are media drawing performances. A painter actually draws a picture during the performance. On stage, the artist’s existence becomes very big through a media apparatus. The performer then enters the scene to go this way and that way and starts a journey in the hands of the giant and his painting. Very easily, the person’s inner fantasy or nightmare becomes visible. The person is trapped in the giant’s hands or flies in the sky. I created these performances in 2007 and 2011 respectively. During that period, my children were going to elementary school. The sensibility I developed by raising the kids led to these two works. Creativity, games, fun and freedom were connected to the performances so naturally. While creating the works, I reflected on the fact that everyone (adult or child) has their own inner world. And I thought about these philosophical questions. “What would dominate such an inner world?” “Is the giant in the performance a god or capitalism?”

LEE Cheolsung: As for our performances using paper as a major medium, there are "Paper Human", "Massager" and "Self-Massager", which was created amid the recent global pandemic. These works pursue community art, and they feel different compared to other works. In "Massager", massagers train local residents as massagers and with them, they invite their customers from the public. They then cover these customers with paper and provide them with a special massage service. At a certain moment, paper bodies are made out of the invitees’ bodies. After that, the artists perform with the paper humans. They hug them and finally burn the paper humans at the end of this healing performance. Many factors would have made me produce this work but most importantly, I received a certain revelation of the era as an artist. Such a revelation also came from a material. One day, I rediscovered paper. I accidentally wrapped a person with paper and I made a copy of the person’s body. The paper body overwhelmed me. Led by indescribable power, I worked on paper over 15 years. I believe that important things come from materials.

HA So Jung: I joined CCOT by working on . For this performance, I wrapped people with paper and prepared the stage. One day, the director called me, saying tha the wanted to do a performance called "Massager". I went to the studio andwe worked on the same material but did totally different, strange experiments. After doing a massage with paper, we cut out the face part from the paper. I then used it as a mask. Without seeing anything, I climbed a hill. Such a performance made me experience all kinds of things by bringing out my existence, which was not that of a performer. In particular, I enjoyed experiencing something with my eyes closed and going somewhere with someone leading me. I kept my eyes closed but I felt free, which was great. With my eyes open, I have to perceive something and make decisions. But with my eyes closed, there came a moment when I became able to free myself from these things and run around peacefully. I hoped that the audience could also have this experience. As such thoughts played a direct and important role for the work,we met new people in a great variety of cities and countries, running and shouting with them. The previous works of CCOT were made by the performer LEE Cheolsung from the beginning to the end but this performance can be completed only with citizens’participation. So every show was different and every facial expression of the audience filled the performance differently, just like changing weather. So weended up having multiple performances.

LEE Cheolsung: It couldn’t be generalized but people in different countries had different sentiments and reactions. I had several memorable moments. In 2018 in Spain, we did the performance "Massager" with a citizen performer in a wheel chair. At first, we wondered if the person could perform in a wheelchair. But despite our concerns, the person was able to participate without any big problem. The citizen had started artistic activities while overcoming numerous challenges and found vitality as a dancer and citizen artist. We learned many things from this collaboration. And going beyond that, it was rewarding to contribute to community art enabling us to learn many things from each other.

On the otherhand, we also faced different aspects in society. In 2019, we were performing in Pohang and an angry person suddenly came and took a participant of the performance with her. It was the participant’s mother-in-law. We don’t know what was the matter but it seemed that she wasn’t aware that a performance was going on. It happened in full view of the audience. The incident was bewildering but we believe that this is something to reflect on seriously. Sometimes, art unveils aspects in society that may feel us uncomfortable. Such phenomena also help us think about where our art is and where it should be headed.

HA So Jung: In addition to "Self-Massager" we worked on lately, there is another performance of the “Massager” series. In this work called "Foil Massager", we also make a human shape, not with paper but with foil. The person made of foil then gets up and walks around. Performing with foil is actually a small chapter in"Paper Human" and I really like that part. I want to develop this further. I also want to do other projects that could lead us to meet many people.

LEE Cheolsung: I like expressions such as “outdoor collection of poems,” “outdoor art museum” and“outdoor movie theater.” On the street, everything looks like a movie in a theater, like an artwork in a museum and like a poem on the street. Walking down the street is comparable to reading an outdoor collection of poems. Artists may need to get out of their authority as artists to serve as humble guides. They are not creators but they lead the existing arts everywhere on the street. I dream of a world where streets become art and everyone becomes an artist. That is what I pursue as a street artist.

#journey #unfamiliar #to_open_senses_different_from_those_in_daily_liife

#things_becoming_art_anywhere #everyone_becoming_art

#outdoor_art_museum_already_full_of_art

#wind #what_is_the_most_important_when_growing_a_plant #the_air_that_is_not_stagnant

*Photo Credit: ⓒCCOT