1. The class moving to one of the sites of the final performances made by the students.jpg — The class moving to one of the sites of the final performances made by the students

A group of students from various majors and grades, three international artists, and a concept to explore. Mix these elements, sprinkle a good dose of curiosity, dedication, and joy, and you’ll have a pretty good idea of what the CultureHub Intercultural Residency Studio that took place in the Spring semester 2024 at the Seoul Institute of the Arts was all about. Guided by resident artists Stephan Koplowitz, Raymund ‘Rama’ Marcaida, and Cat Mahari, the CultureHub program embarked on a journey of artistic discovery focused on the topic of site-specific performance. The students who participated in the program had the opportunity to learn diverse theoretical approaches, through lectures and explanations, and to put them into practice in the workshops, creating their collaborative site-specific performances. Each invited artist shared examples, stories, advice, exercises, and methodologies, providing an opportunity for exchange, and facilitating the collaboration among students from different departments.

The program began in March and continued for 15 weeks until the end of the semester, in June. Each artist resided on campus and worked with the students for three weeks, exposing the students to diverse approaches to site-specific performances. In the final part of the semester, the students applied what they had learned, crafting their own site-specific creations, under the supervision and guidance of professors Andrea Paciotto and Ku Young Lee.

Stephan Koplowitz and Site (March 11-30, 2024)
The first introductory session with Stephan Kolplowitz began with a lecture introducing students to site-specific performance. Koplowitz shared ideas and methodologies he developed during over thirty years of international career dedicated to site-specific performance. He encouraged the students to begin the process of creation with detailed research and inventory of the chosen location, considering the site as “the equivalent of the score in a musical performance”. Various examples of Stephan’s own works with the different types of performances were shown to the students, but nothing beats practice, so it wasn’t long before Stephan invited the students outside the classroom to visit three sites he had selected around campus. This first visit enabled students to get a firsthand experience of some of the key points Stephan had introduced in the lecture.

The first one was ‘site inventory’, a method that consists of observing the features of a site and listing the physical elements present in the space (e.g. how many steps, how many doors, how many pillars, etc…). Starting with a site inventory allows approaching the work with a more open and objective mind, preventing judgment and biased ideas, while prioritizing possibilities arising from the space itself. The second point was ‘audience placement’, and Stephan guided the students to different viewing points of the sites, showing the difference in visibility and experience. Where the audience stands, sits, or moves through the space, greatly influences the experience of an audience.

Students were divided into three groups, one for each site, to begin developing some ideas for performance, following the approach suggested by Stephan. The second session was fully dedicated to further developing the students’ site-specific experiments, guided by feedback interventions from Stephan and the professors. In this process, inevitably students encountered several of the most common challenges typical of this kind of collaborative performance in public spaces, such as the difficulty of combining diverse ideas from various team members into a coherent performative concept, the unpredictability of the weather, and the unexpected intrusion of curious onlookers and passersby. These were all aspects that Stephan had mentioned during his initial lecture, while introducing the process of bringing the creative process out from the studio into the world. He also commented on the fact that creating performances in public sites would leave an indelible mark, both for the creators who develop an emotional bond with the space, a sort of ‘ownership’ feeling, and for the audience who can see a familiar space in a new way inspired by the artwork.

The students well understood the importance of the connection between the performers and the audience. All three groups’ creations reflected the importance of the space, and incorporated the audience’s point of view in the design of the performance, either by moving the spectators at specific moments or by creating a narrative that developed along different points of the site. Stephan emphasized that the presence of the human body in relation to the space can create very powerful images, and continuously encouraged the students to prioritize the use of dynamic physical actions including, for instance, running, grabbing, chasing, jumping, etc.

Parallel to teaching the Intercultural Residency Studio class, Koplowitz also conducted a workshop, involving both students and alumni, during which he choreographed and directed a site-specific performance using various locations of the Madong building, an immersive experience in four parts, engaging different aspects of this iconic site.

Raymund ‘Rama’ Marcaida and Nature (April 2-20, 2024)
Rama inspired students with a warm wave of both cheerfulness and calmness. Starting with a lively introduction to Philippine culture, the students were guided through ice-breaking activities that involved games prompting them to run around the classroom laughing and creating art collages to express their group’s identity. Rama then demonstrated and taught the basic movements of Pangalay, a traditional Philippine dance whose slow movements served as a stepping stone in the students’ opening process between themselves, each other, and nature. This first class remains memorable for the joyful and healing exploration of play that would continue to thrive in the following sessions and be further explored during the next workshop with Cat Mahari and throughout the semester.

Rama teaches the students the basic movements of Pangalay

After introducing the Pangalay moves, Rama led the students outside to use the movements as a way to interact with the surrounding nature. Immersed in the spring atmosphere of the afternoon sun, surrounded by cherry blossoms, the students followed Rama’s voice. With slow meditative movements, they walked barefoot in the grass. They put aside the bustling energy of everyday life and found a way to relax in the moment of reconnecting with nature. Focusing inward, the students were fully immersed in the exercise that spontaneously bloomed into a graceful and peaceful site-specific performance.

The students doing an outdoor exercise that turned into a spontaneous site-specific performance

The unique energy of the moment was palpable, providing a concrete understanding of what Rama had presented during the introduction: the idea of performance as an offering. Indeed, Pangalay has its origin in a Sanskrit word that means offering, and Rama compared the act of dancing to an offering of the self, through body and movements, to the audience. He told the students that if they perform from the heart, it is difficult to get tired because of a regenerative sense of fulfillment experienced through the direct connection with the audience. So long as the performers dance with sincerity, they never run out of themselves. Extending the concept, Rama explained that life is like a dance, it is about sharing. Through sharing, one can enrich themselves and become a better person.

Students showing their group name and cheer to the rest of the class

Sincerity, nature, connection, and tradition. These are the keywords that summarize Rama’s teachings over the three weeks. Creativity and innovation, without a link to tradition, he said, may lead to a gradual loss of identity. Such advice inspired some students to incorporate traditional Korean elements in their performances: instruments, dances, costumes, and stories. From the combination of these principles, students created short group site-specific performances, immersed in various natural sites around the campus. Additionally, as a conclusion of Rama’s residency, the audience was invited to witness a final performance. It began with a short presentation and a dance demonstration created and performed by Rama, a magical moment in which even the wind was conjured to play with Rama’s elegant movements. Later, the group moved from one location to the other to discover the students’ creations, which then concluded with a participatory dance that involved the audience in a collective celebratory moment.

The audience joins in with the last performing group during the final performances

Cat Mahari and Play (April 22–May 10, 2024)
Play and its relation to culture was the key topic of Cat Mahari’s work with the students. She provided them with guidance and exercises to explore how playing is deeply rooted in culture, social relations, and grouping. In her creations, Cat Mahari uses play in public spaces as a way to create dynamic, liberatory, disruptive, and inclusive performances. Play, different from games, is an open-ended, voluntary, and purposeless activity that can develop communication, re-articulate how we interact with each other, and contribute to developing critical thinking.

Cat gave several examples of how play had historically been used as a method of survival, learning, and community bonding. Hopscotch, for instance, was used by slaves in the United States, who were forbidden to receive an education, as a tool to learn rhythm and math. More than that, Hopscotch, and more broadly speaking games, were also a way to grow and sustain community, developing certain patterns of movement, which in turn contributed to the (re)establishment of a group’s identity.

The concept of group, not to be confused with community, was one of the key points that Cat encouraged the students to focus on. By asking the students to think of which groups they thought they belonged to (or not), Cat made them reflect on the connection between the individual and the group. As individuals, we all belong to certain groups, defined for example by birthplace, language, profession, and so on. Play, she explained, is all about devising and reflecting on ways of grouping, yet differently than a game does because one can play without a goal assigned or a particular outcome, and has no scores or set scale.

In preparation for the performative creation, students had to begin exploring the idea of play, choosing a play from their own traditions and culture, proposing ways to deconstruct it, and renew it with new variations and combinations.

The class listening to the rules of a game developed by one group

After much practice and repetitions, the students were given the task of thinking about a location where they would like to perform their intervention. Following Cat’s suggestions, emphasizing the essential role of community in her approach to site-specific performance, all groups naturally attempted to play with spontaneous audience engagement. As Cat had explained in her first lecture, all site-specific performances are about transforming the site, changing people’s ordinary relation to the place, and proposing new activities that engage the people and the space in new ways. Working in various public areas around the campus, the groups were able to successfully engage the community of—often shy—fellow students passing by. These performances took the students inside and outside buildings, in playful actions and situations, which involved running, teasing, laughing, hopping, and occasional mischievous post-it sticking.

Presentation of performances by two of the groups

During the residency, Cat Mahari also conducted a parallel workshop focused on urban dance and electronic music production, which also led to a participatory interactive play. It began with an invitation to the audience to choose a side of the performance’s space depending on whether they considered themselves to be a good or bad person. This prompted a confused, yet curious, grouping of the audience before the performers arrived, disrupting the space into a sort of playground of dance and music. Audience members were approached by performers wearing white jumpsuits and encouraged to move, dance, and draw freely on the pavement using colored chalk.

Cat’s performance with students of the Institute of the Arts

Following the performance, the students, many of which now had chalk-colored hands, returned to the studio to write a short reflection on the experiences. They were asked to dig deeper and individually write down three observations related to their play, the chosen location, the intention of the work, and the expected interaction with the audience. These reflections served as the starting point for a group feedback session and a general discussion, during which Cat Mahari reminded the students that as artists we have to be aware of our own biases, be cautious of the habits of sticking to familiar groups and behaviours, and most importantly we need to find ways to liberate ourselves from these ties that may limit our creative mind.

Students writing self-reflection about their performance

Culmination and Conclusion
The remainder of the program was spent exploring practically some of the ideas experienced by the students during the residencies. Each group attempted to apply the most interesting aspects of the workshops in the creation of new site-specific performance. Many traces of what the students had learned from the international guests were recognizable in all final works in the dynamic and multilayered use of the spaces, in the boldness demonstrated in the way the audience was engaged in performance and play, in the sense of healing and liberation that most performances expressed.

Audience placement and audience immersion/participation in two of the performances

Over the course of the semester, the students faced many challenges, the unpredictably chilly weather of earlier weeks, the language barrier with the guest artists, the intense demand to always generate new ideas and collaborative performances, and the struggle to find the extra time necessary to complete these group creations. Yet, all of them pushed through and leveraged every movement of this learning process on site-specific performances, transforming it into a precious opportunity to open themselves to new artistic approaches and new artistic visions, find the energy to create in collaboration with fellow students, engage the surroundings and the audience in surprising and unexpected ways.

Students celebrate the end of the final class at the site of the last performance

During the last moments of the final class, the sense of open-ended play spread among all members, as a pink plastic soap bubble stick made rounds among students and professors to stand in as a makeshift mic. The students expressed their satisfaction with the class despite its challenges, and some called it healing. Having witnessed the joy and playfulness that often peeked through moments of concentration during the semester, I can confirm this class provided a unique atmosphere, stimulating critical thinking, trust, and artistic freedom. The enrichment it sparked and fostered was one of a kind, for all people involved, students, professors, and guest artists alike.

Observing the students’ behavior, I saw effort, dedication, and an impressive willingness to learn and challenge themselves, but I also saw joy and playfulness. The CultureHub Intercultural Residency Studio brought people together and contributed to expanding their horizons, it created an opportunity for a rich artistic spring of creative collaboration, that all participants will certainly fondly recall and carry with them throughout their journey.

A very warm thank you to the artists who came to share their art and wisdom, to the professors who encouraged and guided the students as well as allowed me to take part in this opportunity, and to all the talented class members who embarked on this challenge and turned it into a memorable, colorful, and inspiring experience; may it serve them well in their future endeavors and inspire them to reach greater heights than they could have dared to imagine.

Site-Specific Performance and the Art of Connecting

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Site-Specific Performance and the Art of Connecting

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