Project WAE is a project group that was established in 2010. They constantly ask themselves why they perform in outdoor spaces rather than in theaters. Answering this question is their primary motive. They meet audiences with performances that reflect modern people’s lives in a variety of daily spaces. In collaboration with communities and other countries, they create site-specific street dance performances. Their representative works include "Be Sill in Existence", "ID and PW", "1258 bunji, joong 1 dong, Haeundaegu", "Quickly Quickly", "B Real" and "Gargantua".

JEONG An-Young: There may be numerous concepts of site-specific performances but to me, it means to tell daily stories in daily spaces. In most cases, we don’t choose a special place for a performance but we produce it in a way that doesn’t distinguish between the daily space and performance venue. So it isn’t easy to present our works in a festival context which is about transforming a space around a plaza into a festival venue. We perform everywhere in daily life, without separating our performances from daily life. That is what a “site-specific performance” is about, for me.

Of course, what I have wanted to express couldn’t be understood at 100% but what counts is “why we perform in this space.” So for all our works, I do research and creation by focusing on the present aspect, the past and the future direction of a certain place. I once performed plays and after that, I studied stage design and I’m currently working as a director. My identity as a director resides in the “eyes looking at spaces.” When working, I always look at spaces at the same time. I also want to work with stories of those who live in the space or who use it as a daily space. As an outsider, I would like to be with them throughout the creative process from its beginning. But it isn’t easy. In many cases, they don’t want that. And they also stop collaborating with us if the process is challenging. But it is our goal we need to achieve gradually. It will take time and efforts.

JEONG Sungtaek: At the beginning, we worked with professional choreographers. But the director’s intention wasn’t reflected well and it wasn’t satisfactory. So for the past three years, the director and I have interpreted her intention together. An-Young doesn’t like dancers’ uniform movements. Instead of stylized dance movements, we look for those found in daily life. So it takes lots of time. I’m an actor so it isn’t easy to do this job but I give advice to the director in this regard. While working, it’s really hard so I want to quit. But I keep working with the director because I agree with her artistic view and mise-en-scène in street arts and I want to be with her. I’m not used to how she works but I had a chance to grow as an actor.

JEONG An-Young: I feel more comfortable when working with actors who are good at using their bodies. In the case of dancers, when I ask them to walk naturally, they couldn’t do that, in my view. And dancers don’t understand the selection of a space according to the concept of a performance. In contrast, well-trained actors may find it difficult to create a dance performance but they communicate better and have a better understanding. For me, it is easier to fill something than to empty it so I prefer working with actors who are already empty and who need to be filled.

SEO Soo-hyun: I have camaraderie with An-Young. Although we work in different fields, we studied together. As the stage director, I’m in charge of what is technical and administrative. What we do couldn’t be called co-production but the director talks about her concept and synopsis for the first time with me. We not only talk about technical elements but also about how to perform in general. It seems that we can discuss all these things because I majored in dramaturgy. After clearly understanding the main points of what the director wants to do, I give her advice. I also arrange scenes, routes and roles in a practical way. I’m not in the front line of creation but once there is a certain concept, I’m in a position of exchanging ideas with the director.

We have experienced many fun things in the process of infiltrating into daily life to perform. When it comes to our early work "Gargantua", we worked in the Seun shopping area in Seoul and at that time, someone stole our equipment and we also had to deal with a drunken person. What is challenging at the technical level is that in addition to highlighting our concept of not separating daily life and performances, we need to keep a certain distance in order to ensure the safety of the performers and audience. We need a distance to the point that people could not easily distinguish between reality and unreality. At the same time, we need to make the distance appropriate so that we could communicate with the audience emotionally. In particular, we need to improvise this in every performance space, on the spot. That is challenging but attractive. But with experiences accumulated, such an aspect of our team seems to have developed greatly compared to its other parts.

JEONG An-Young: I have never been an employee before. One day, I had a really incredible experience. I was In the Jongro area in Seoul and it was lunch time. Suddenly, a huge number of employees in shirts and ties came out. Pushed by them, I got lost on the street. That experience felt very unreal. I felt that I was like oil that doesn’t blend with water because I don’t belong to this world. Starting from that feeling, I made the performance "Quickly Quickly". During its premiere in 2014, four dancers and about 30 citizens joined the performance on the stairs behind Sejong Center. At that time, I focused on using its scenes to express a strange and unfamiliar atmosphere felt in the crowd. Later on, I made up for what was lacking in the performance to re-create it in 2017. In this new version, there is no distinction between the space for performers and that for the audience. And characters showing unfamiliar movements in a daily urban space appear suddenly, which is different from the previous version. And we made everyday movements that could be performed anywhere. After that, we found a space for the performance. We presented this performance for about four years and during that period, the performers improved their harmony and led the work to perfection.

JEONG Sungtaek: I have performed in this work since its premiere. In one of its scenes, five performers put Bluetooth speakers in each of their bags and walk while generating sounds. When they reach a certain place, the speaker installed there integrate the sounds from the performers. At the same times, the performers seem to be absorbed into the zone and I liked that. For a year, we have performed with new music but the music has an excessively cinematographic flow so it is difficult to be immersed. I actually prefer the previous flow in daily life and its calm finale.

SEO Soo-hyun: From the perspective of an administrator, I understand the performers’ challenges. As the performance is modified, its scenes are clearly divided. Some people like it while others don’t. But there are actually many people who like it. For me, what is regrettable technically is that I couldn’t control the Bluetooth speakers at the same time. This is something that needs improvements.

JEONG An-Young: The 2017 version of "Quickly Quickly" was presented at the lobby of COEX at lunch time, on weekdays. At the beginning of the work, there is a scene where a performer falls down suddenly. At this, passers-by were surprised and hurriedly came to the performer who had fallen down. We couldn’t even continue the performance. Then the stage director Soo-hyun told them that a performance was going on, trying to stop them. But I told her not to stop them because such reaction is rather natural. I told her not to control what is natural just to keep the flow of the performance intact. From then on, in such a situation, we calmly approached shocked people, who tried to ask for help or who were about to react excessively, and we told them that it was a performance.

JEONG An-Young: Through the previous works, I used to express my own world view. On the other hand, in "Be Still in Existence", I expressed many other people’s world view in my own style. That is what differentiates this work. I have lived very fiercely since I was a high schooler. Such a challenge to survive is clearly expressed in many of my works. It has been tough to live and I have also felt the futility of life, just as I had nothing. Such a feeling of emptiness is also reflected in my works. That may have made the audience feel uncomfortable. But thinking about what story to tell on the path in Gyeongchun Line Forest Park (the venue of "Be Still in Existence"), I saw people living their daily lives. So I interviewed 50 people to listen to their life stories. They told me about their lives symbolized by a railway, their splendid moment, the challenging part of their lives and the process of overcoming the challenges. Writing down each facet of their lives was shocking and touching. Looking at such different perspectives of lives, I accepted them as my own stories. This allowed me to keep looking at the people warmheartedly. That power came not from me but from them. After creating a performance like that, I also felt great. I came to let go of many things. And I realized that if I express many people’s ideas and thoughts in my work more comfortably instead of insisting on my own perspective, these people finally touch the audience’s hearts. I keep learning. I keep widening my scope.

JEONG Sungtaek: Doing this performance, I also felt some artistic change personally. In the work, there is a point that share different views of how to connect the work’s unreal characters to our reality in daily life. In particular, the performance has not only professional dancers but also actors, children and older people who are capable of expressing daily movements. Such a change in directing feels natural with authenticity. I like and welcome the change.

JEONG An-Young: We are preparing a performance taking place at a convenience store. Working part-time at a convenience store for over six months, I came to question the store’s system, thinking, “For whom does this ‘convenience’ exists?” “Is this convenience a real one for us?” Working at a convenience store, I meet all kinds of people. It’s so fun and strange. Their voices, acts and tastes for products are all different and while looking at them, I thought that it was like a play. So I wanted to make a performance out of it. Fortunately, we became eligible for support so we are preparing the work. But amid the pandemic, we are searching for a solution. The performance will show the convenience store system operating 24 hours so it will be hard for the performers. The basic concept is to perform non-stop for 48 hours. Like the staff at the convenience store, the actors will perform in three shifts, with each of them dancing for eight consecutive hours, in a real convenience store. In short, the work will show the store’s daily activities as they are and at the same time, the artists will perform. The audience will be wearing headsets to listen to different interviews: those with people, those about objects and those about the convenience store.

Personally, I really want to stage a performance near choppy waters. In a way, life’s ups and downs resemble the sea. Maybe because I was born and grew up in the port city of Busan in Korea, I feel that I’m living with winds and waves. We do face winds and waves in our lives but we feel the most comforted at the seaside. So I want to present a performance at the seaside, which embraces everything including storms of life, consolation and bounty of nature.

JEONG Sungtaek: What is regrettable about many international street performances is that artists have no choice but to create performances in the framework of a fixed space. It is still difficult to find a space and to get permission. In my view, a real street performance takes place in a natural and daily environment, rather than in a specifically fixed and prepared place. And it starts and end while people don’t know whether it is a performance or not. I want to do a performance after spending hours to observe a certain space, doing my daily activities in there and having a sense of belonging to the space.

SEO Soo-hyun: For me, not only a space but also what we implement in the space is important. Here, “implementation” refers to all daily or non-daily acts that we do to exist independently in a certain space. It means a performance that is completed by existing in harmony with the space. I believe that our team started that implementation with "Be Still in Existence". A space for implementation could be a daily space or choppy waters. Or, the audience could look at performers from afar while they are implementing something at the rooftop of ARKO Art Center in Marronnier Park in Seoul. Artists could also play the role of implementation at symbolic, landmark buildings. That could allow them to communicate with their audience.

#reality_itself #turning_point_in_life #expansion_of_life

#windpipe_allowing_me_to_breathe #what_is_ordinary_and_extraordinary
#place_where_people_can_leave_or_erase_their_traces

*Photo Credit: ©Hyungjun Parkkim