Socially collaborative art project
May 1, 2022–November 30, 2023
Song of the Wind took place in Yaksan-myeon, Wando-gun, South Korea, between May 2022 and November 2023. It was conceived by its Artistic Director, Dr. Sunyoung Oh, as an experimental, socially collaborative art project that involved artists from the Global North and Global South and a community of seaweed farmers and fishermen on a small island within the archipelago off the southwest coast of Korea. A principal aim of the project was to call attention to the fragility of the eco-system and the dangers of neglecting it; artists and artistic labor were employed as a problem-solving strategy to evolve thinking and practice in ways that might confront and strategically rethink local social and environmental issues. Through the process of developing collaborations between artists and local residents within an area lacking an established cultural infrastructure, the generative potential of creative activity as a way of stimulating new perspectives was clearly revealed.
The Song of the Wind international residency program offered a space where cultural practitioners, ecological activists, and other creative thinkers could immerse themselves in their work while also engaging with the local economy, local people, and their surroundings. The first residency program took place from May to June 2023, and the second from September to early October 2023. Six artists and artist groups: Christine Mackey, Daniel Duarte Pereira, Gatari Surya Kusma, Rakarsa Collective, Wan Chantavilasvong, and Zeke Sales, were selected to work in Yaksan-myeon, coming from Indonesia, Ireland, the Philippines, Portugal, and Thailand. The contributions of the artists were additionally supported by three associate researchers, Shin-Koo Woo, Tessa Peters, and Marco Kusumawijaya.
Among the outcomes of the project were collaborative workshops instigated by the artists that invited the participation of different groups from the local community, including children, elders, and migrant workers. The artists in residence also worked with local mural painters, musicians, other visiting visual and performance artists, and choreographers to develop a programme of live events and interventions.
Artistic responses to Song of the Wind in 2023 can be viewed on the project website.
A further response, arising from the participating artist’s experiences of Yaksan as a center of seaweed farming, is the e-book Pung-Mi. In the Korean language, the term “Pung-Mi” refers to an enjoyment of food and/or the personality of a good-natured person. There is also the homonym, “Pung-Mi,” which in Korean colloquial expression refers to widespread social phenomena or trends. The title of the e-book (downloadable from the project website) includes all the meanings of the word; the contents of the book offer a broad range of contextualizations of different cultures of seaweed in Indonesia, Ireland and the British Isles, Korea, the Philippines, Portugal, and Thailand.
2022–23 Arko Public Art Project: Socially collaborative art project Song of the Wind
Directed by Dr. Sunyoung Oh / Project Associates: BK21Four, Department of Architecture, Pusan National University; Mekong Cultural Hub / Organized by Jeollanam-do Culture Foundation / Supported by Arts Council Korea; The Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology, Indonesia.
*Images above: (1, 2, 4) Ambiguous Dance Company and village participants during the kelp farming, May 2023. (3) Indonesian researcher and curator Gatari Surya Kusuma during the kelp farming in May and June 2023. (5) The preparation process for kelp drying work. A mural painting is located on one side with the scenery of this village. Village participants Yukyung Lee and Sunhee Bang collaborated with the artist Sookyung Lee for the mural painting in Eodu-ri, Yaksan-myeon, Wando-gun, Jeollanam-do, South Korea. December 2022. (6) Pressed “Dasima (Kelp in Korean)” seaweed, harvested from Caldebarcos beach in Galicia, Spain, and skillfully assembled by youth in Gogeum-myeon, Wando-gun, Jeollanam-do, South Korea, during the “Entangled Encounters with Seaweed” workshop, led by Daniel Duarte Pereira, under the artist-in-residency program of the “Song of the Wind.” September 2023. (7) Fishermen in Wando engage in seasonal farming. Laver seaweed farming begins from September to early October. (8) Industrialization of fishing villages brings benefits to the economic activities of fishermen, but there are losses simultaneously. Fishing methods that consider ecological and environmental concerns need to be widely known.
