ELEPHANTS LAUGH was founded in 2009 by LEE Jinyeob who specializes in stage design. The company’s work is summarized as three key words: #site-specific #community #participation_of_the_audience. Based on their site-specific style, they produce performances by integrating stories of the community and space. Their representative works include "Neighborhood Museum", an exhibition and performance based on the exploration of their neighborhood, "Dream in the Changdeokgung Palace", which consists in walking in the rear garden of the palace, "Einstein in the Flat #201", which took place in the director’s apartment, "BODIES IN THE DARK", which invites the audience to explore senses and ethics with their own bodies, "MULJIL 1 Muljil", where the audience visit different places in Seoul to serve as performers, "MULJIL 2 While Doing muljil", which tells stories of Korea’s social minorities and refugees, "Three to Three, Four to Four", a performance lasting 24 hours designed to narrow the gap of time sensed by those who are visually impaired and those who are not, and "Everyone in Doksan", a mobile performance telling stories of those living in Korea’s Doksan 3-dong area.

Interview

Q. Since its founding, ELEPHANTS LAUGH has collaborated with many people to create performances. And you have worked with fixed team members for the past few years. Could you explain since when the team members, who join this interview, have worked together and what roles each of you are playing in the team?

SEO Hyunsung: We have worked together since 2013. Producing street performances, I play a role of communicating with the actors, creators and community workshops. I like to talk so I came to take charge of naturally talking to communities and managing their schedule.

HAN Kijang: I’m an actor and I also do different things needed for performances. For example, I also serve as a stage director and set up the stage. I drive when the crew needs to go somewhere. In "MULJIL 2", I managed the water tank. Doing all kinds of things, I keep learning.

LEE Jinyeob: I believe that theatergoers are already meeting lots of arts. I want to meet those who don’t go to theaters. While working on performances, I’m inspired by spaces. What is more important is people who are there. Every place has different passers-by.

SEO Hyunsung: We sometimes performed in an unlikely place for those who weren’t interested. I find it attractive to perform for unprepared people.

HAN Kijang: At first, it felt awkward to perform on the street. But as time went by, I felt that people, nature, cats and cars in a certain place were reacting. It was fun to see unexpected things happen simultaneously and to enable people to feel that with us. For me, a site-specific performance is about communicating with the place and everything in there.

LEE Jinyeob: We didn’t try to find them intentionally. In the case of the Ipjeong-dong area, we went there to look for a stage set. We met and talked to those working on it and we found out that they had never seen a performance before. So I decided to perform in that area. In 2018, we went to Ansan City and discovered a community of multi ethnic families, foreign workers and refugees. So we met them and came to work with them. And I saw visually impaired people often in my neighborhood and formed relationships with them. I wanted to know about them. I wondered how I could meet up with them and I thought that art would be an easy way to do so.

Such a process allowed me to see the aspects of society I hadn’t known. The occasion fixed my attitude toward such aspects and led me to create a performance. Without my creative work, I wouldn’t be interested in society. Meeting them has helped me gradually know about society.

LEE Jinyeob: For each of the Ipjeong-dong area, Cheonho Park and citizens of Ansan City, the process of meeting people was very different. In Ipjeong-dong, over 70% of the residents had come from local areas outside Seoul. When I talked to them, I spoked in different local dialects. And they asked me where I was from. At the beginning, people considered us religious people or sales people. That is why we began to wear a uniform for our performances. We don’t interview people as soon as we see them. We first let them know who we are and make them feel curious about us.

HAN Kijang: Even if we want do our research, we put it aside for next time. And we eat with them and pass lots of time together. To talk to a restaurant owner, I eat at the restaurant and to know about a barbershop owner, I ask him to do my hair. In a market, I eat fruits and stir-fried rice cakes. Like this, we start by saying hello. Later on, those in the community come and talk to us.

HAN Kijang: We did research for three months. Like in Gwangmyeong City, we started from starch to collect data. The Doksan area has those who had worked for a sewing factory, the Korean-Chinese and merchants in the south gate market. While the Gwangmyeong area is characterized by buildings in the redeveloped zone, what differentiates the Doksan area is the activeness of its local residents. So this performance will involve many of those in the local community.

LEE Jinyeob: Beginning to prepare the performance, I thought that it would be great to tell past stories of tailers and sewing factories in the Guro industrial complex. But walking around in the neighborhood, I saw that they were all on the second floor so we couldn’t see them. So we thought about how to meet them on the route we had chosen. In this process, we were able to meet many people and listen to their stories. The number of communities participating in the performance increased more and more thanks to the local residents’ active participation. So unlike what we had planned, we minimized the role of the actors while expanding that of the communities.

LEE Jinyeob: Doing community projects, we often witness people’s problems that could be solved only by changing the social system. While working with them, I wonder if not an artist but a social activist would be more important for them. But I don’t think I could be an activist so I think, “What could I do in this situation?” I reflect on how our work could be connected to society to have positive influences, even though we may not be bringing big changes.

SEO Hyunsung: Normally, we go and see the community participants a couple of times a year. We also invite those who participated in the previous projects to a new performance. But when a performance is around the corner, we are so busy so we sometimes forget about them. In addition, our performances aren’t for a large number of people so there is a limit to meeting the previous participants through another performance. It is always hard to say goodbye. So we try not to excessively feel the sense of responsibility for relationships with them while also trying not to ignore them. We shared with them a moment of caring about each other sincerely so now, we could meet each other anytime without any burden.

SEO Hyunsung: More and more, our performances remove criteria for how to encourage the audience to participate or to which degree we would allow them to participate. When performing "BODIES IN THE DARK", we were worried, thinking, “What  if a strange person comes? Wouldn’t we need to be prepared legally?” But the audience were more rational than expected. Of course, we don’t know how they communicated in the dark.

LEE Jinyeob: When presenting "Spring Wind in Ipjeong-dong", the owner said that nobodywould come to see the performance. But the first performance attracted more than 100 people. When it comes to "Einstein in the Flat #201", the audience get wet completely in the bathroom but nobody complained. In this way, we came to trust our audience. For "MUJIL 2" as well, people first said that nobody would go inside the water tank.

HAN Kijang: In "MUJIL 2",almost everyone goes inside the water tank after being asked only a couple of times. The performance seems to have the energy that makes the audience get inside once we approach them. In fact, we have got some know how, too. We performed on a cold day and my hands were trembling. And the person who was walking to the water tank with me held my hand tight. Others covered me with their clothes. Such communication is so powerful that I never forget it.

HAN Kijang: During a workshop, a participant said something unforgettable. Supposing that a human has radar perceiving a space, a visually impaired person just perceives it a little more slowly. Regardless of disabilities, everyone needs their own duration of time to perceive a space.

LEE Jinyeob: According to the participant, if people are given a sufficient amount of time to perceive a space, there isn’t any big difference of perception between those who are visually impaired and those who are not. Thinking about how we could experience this, we concluded that we needed to be in the same place for at least 24 hours, “in the dark.” We thought that by staying in the dark for 24hours, people could narrow the gap of their senses. Starting from this idea, we came to plan the 24-hour performance "Three to Three, Four to Four".

HAN Kijang: It was really difficult to make the space completely dark. It was a three-story residence building with a single piece of glass and it was looking toward south. So a particularly great amount light was coming into the building. We blocked that light for several days and even during the performance. Staying long in the dark, we became more sensitive to light. We thought that the audience would also perceive even a slight amount of light after getting used to the darkness. So even if they were sleeping, we came out and blocked light. It was a “fight with light” to make the entire building completely dark.

LEE Jinyeob: It was so hard and after presenting the first performance, I thought about telling others that I couldn’t do it anymore. In the dark, everyone became sensitive so we got hungry soon and we had a headache. Moreover, the actors who newly joined us were supposed to prepare meals for the audience but they got lostin the dark. Under these circumstances, those who are visually impaired didn’t know if there were those who are not and vice versa. In fact, we hadn’t told them anything about who would come. In the dark, they didn’t know who has disabilities and who doesn’t, which was surprising.

LEE Jinyeob: We presented "Einstein in the Flat #201" in my apartment. It was my apartment but it wasn’t a private space at all. While we were performing, local residents called the police, saying that there seemed to be a cult in my place. And the police did come. On the other hand, not everyone has access to public spaces. To perform, you need to get permission. When rehearsing "Game Manual", we went to Sungshin Women’s University and were kicked out. We were also kicked out of the Cheonggyecheon area. Street artists don’t’ have any proper place to rehearse. A public space is supposed to be used by everyone but I don’t know what it is.

SEO Hyunsung: We did perform in a public space without getting permission. Performers and me planned to show some movements at the Seoul Express Bus Terminal. On that day, we first got ready for the performance, each artist in his or her own position. When the time came, we started the performance. The person in charge of the space came and as soon as he noticed us, we had to stop this brief, guerrilla performance.

LEE Jinyeob: Street arts platforms remind us of a theater or a fixed space. So we haven’t participated in those platforms often. We performed on those occasions just three times. In 2011, we performed for “water.” I wanted to use the space stretching from the Gwanghwamun area to the plaza in front of Seoul City Hall. I also wanted to use the electronic display in the plaza. I couldn’t get permission alone so I decided to participate in a festival. As for "Neighborhood Museum" and "MUJIL l", I wanted to share with many people the stories of those I had met so we participated in a festival. Particularly for "MUJIL 2", I wanted to keep in touch with the community participants who had been with us for the preparation of the performance. In addition, the young participants enjoyed acting so we performed at a festival.

At a festival, many people look happy. This makes me realize the importance of performances that can be enjoyed by many people. But at the same time, artists should be given opportunities to make new attempts. For example, it is great to perform in a big plaza but there is only one plaza. I hope that festivals help artists use places they want so that they could make new attempts. Or, festivals could also discover more places for such attempts. It could be the expansion of what is site-specific because a performance’s form and content become different depending on places. That would be a way to diversify street arts.

LEE Jinyeob: I want to infiltrate into spaces owned by businesses. For example, I want to go to Starbucks or E-mart to perform secretly.I wonder if I could be eligible for a creation fund by filing in an application form with such a plan. But I really want to try that.

#playground #act_outside_a_theater #interaction

#me #white_paper #transparent_water

*Photo Credit: ©Sukhyun Jang(Photo 1,2), ©Suwan Park(Photo 3,4)