Looking for Producer (London), Sound/Media Artist, Performers for Travelling Hometown
Speaker, Minkyung SHIN( Independent theatre producer), Erik Kuong(Macao City Fringe Festival Society/Macao)

Title: Travelling Hometown
Genre: Multidisciplinary
Cast: Jiwon YANG, Hope CHIANG etc

Project Introduction
"homeland" has two meanings - one meaning refers to one’s native land, and the other to the land where one’s home is at present…….homeland is no longer a place that exists in one’s past but a place also relevant to one’s present and future (Chinese-American novelist Ha Jin, The writer as a migrant).

Travelling Hometown (TBC) was proposed by two diaspora artists –Hope Chiang(Taipei/Macao) and Jiwon Yang(Seoul/London). The producers joined to their initiative with a belief - the artist’s nationality is ‘of secondary importance’ and the art is ‘his real passport.’

Hope and Jiwon, both left birth cities and settled in new cities where they found good for developing artistic creativity. Besides working as voluntary migrant artists, they also have common backgrounds of a drama, an object theatre with strong interest on visual arts.

Since 2011, Jiwon and Hope are visiting old and new "home" cities –Seoul/Taipei and Macao/London. On a journey, they are questioning the relationship between a city and a human in contemporary era. The outcome of research will be conveyed in a form of multi-disciplinary arts and will be firstly presented in 2012. Travelling Hometown is currently supported by Korea Arts Management Service and Korea’s Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism for 3 years. We are now looking for a co-producer from London and artists taking a role of dramaturgy, performer, sound artist or multi-media artist (video/film).

Brief Summary of Pre-Production
* Encounter (9 Jan-8 Feb 2011. Seoul)

The artists shared previous artistic works and paths each other.Hope visited some places in where were Jiwon guided related to her youth days.Jiwon says, "We simply say, ‘we can travel hometown.’ but, likely we can say, ‘a hometown travels now’. In other words, some traits of ‘hometown’ are transferred with people’s movement trip, migration, – exile, and so on.

* Concept Stage (17-29 Jul 2011. Taipei)
Hope and Jiwon spent 5days for exploring Taipei, Hope’s birthplace. Hope and Jiwon spent other 5days for object and movement workshop. The purpose is to expand the use of objects which were found during a research trip.

During a workshop, Jiwon mainly developed an idea of expanding. Referring Georges Perec’s book, Species of Spaces and Other Pieces, she tried to visualize an expansion of a space. "To live is to pass from one space to another". She used Perec’s idea which begins material offering variations on the theme, then proceeds from space to space in his book. Also, Jiwon was keen on studyingcubism in visual arts. With photos gained from Taipei trips, she tried to ruin a reality of photo and to reconstruct it in workshop space. Hope’s idea was to build her own space anywhere in a world - Anyone can habitualise a foreign space homely with objects that her/his carry while travelling. Especially, she is a great collector of turtle objects. The turtle object represents herself during a workshop. Hope’s the other special object is an umbrella. Umbrella in Chinese, ‘san’ sounds like farewell. Hope suggested archiving the "remains". She was collecting dusts (remains of where I am) in a personal space from friends over a world. To Hope, identity of hometown is shifting. "When I come back to Taipei, I feel refresh and energetic as if I became a tourist of ‘hometown’ where I come from". To share a result of Taipei research trips, Hope and Jiwon invited producers,

Min, Erik and four Taipei-based artists to a short presentation. Thanks to very positive feedback from a presentation, the artists and producers were certain about a choice of theme – travelling hometown. People in contemporary era all are temporary travelers and potential diaspora. Their living style causes a question of identity. Hope and Jiwon primarily wanted to lead a production in a form of autobiography. All members agreed to have one more workshop at treatment stage. In Jan 2012, it will take a place in Macao/Hong Kong for 3 weeks. Mainly, artists will develop artistic creation in Macao. Co-producers will discuss about a production process in Hong Kong. For a production team, the artists and the producers agreed to primarily find Media artist, Dramaturgy, Sound Artist or Composer, Movement director. If possible, the artists would like to invite them to Macao.

* Treatment Stage (2 and half weeks, Jan 2012. Macao)
The artists will explore Macao, Hope’s current hometown. The artists will organize internal workshops and make a production development plan. The artists should submit preliminary script and production design etc. At this stage, the artists will begin work for the (public) presentation and peer group assessment.

* Development Stage (3-4days, Jan 2012. Hong Kong)
It will take a place right after treatment stage in Macao. All co-producers and artists will gather at Fringe Club and oversee the further development of the project. The artists will propose how to organize production members for creation. At this stage, Hope and Jiwon should identify their roles. Producers will discuss about how to share a production budget. Co-producers from different cities will be able to share their vision on independent artists and platforms in Asia at a talk for the public.

Seoul Fringe Network, Fringe Club (Hong Kong), Macao City Fringe Festival Society and Guling Street Avant-garde Theatre (GLT, Taipei) are committed to this collaboration as co-producers. Co-producers are responsible for the support of creation, development, and touring. This project network of Seoul/Hong Kong/Macao/Taipei try to edify(reinforce) the relationship between independent producersand artists in Asia based on the network which we have made through the workshops, forums, residence program and invited artists for last 10 years. We have developed thisreliable network with a common interest, Contemporariness of Asia, through the projects such as Next Wave Asia and Little Asia Creators’ Meeting.

Erik(Macao City Fringe Festival Society/Macao) and Min(Independent theatre producer/Seoul) of this co-producer network are closely working with the artists. Erik has been working with Hope at several international collaboration projects over 10 years. Min is keen on studying identity on the move: contemporary diaspora artists in international performance research.

Contact Person : Minkyung SHIN, Erik Kuong
Tel: 82-10-2607-5724
web: www.seoulfringe.net, www.hkfringeclub.com, www.creativelinks.asia, www.glt.org.tw
Email: weeminmin@gmail.com, erik@creativelinks.asia