The judges of the 2024 15th DOOSAN Yonkang Art Award present director Kang Boreum as the recipient. Kang Boreum, director of the group Project Readymade, has consistently explored themes involving the intersection of diverse bodies and voices, including those of women, workers, youth, artists, queer individuals, and people with disabilities.
Kang Boreum is a director who evolves through her theatrical practice. Since her debut with The Readymade Life (2017), she has diligently produced work, including Modern-girl Times (2018 I'm Not Even That Contemporary: Apology Department Store (2020), Here, Once, Lady Gaga (2021), Theater Pan-tasy (2022), Practice of Free (2023), Internal Organs*Long-Term Memory (2024), Where is the Nearest Accessible Restroom? (2024), and Midsummer Train Play (2024). Throughout her practice, she has incorporated various performance formats that explored ways of interacting with the actors and the audience. By integrating oral history, exhibitions, pansori, aries, and immersive experiences, she has continued to expand the scope of theatrical expression. At the same time, she has demonstrated an unmatched talent for bringing new experiences to the audience, introducing social issues in theatrical ways rather than through activism. Her steadily high level of execution from piece to piece, despite varying formats, inspires confidence in her capabilities.
A notable aspect of Kang Boreum's work is her ability to highlight the actors. She shows respect for the unique traits of her collaborators, allowing them to express their own personalities and voices freely. For instance, in Here, Once, Lady Gaga, disabled actor Ha Ji-sung, who portrayed a non-disabled character, overcame the usual pressures to conform to his co-actors' pace and performed at his own rhythm. Similarly, Cameroonian immigrant artist Laure MAFO, featured in Practice of Free, presented herself authentically on stage, allowing her distinctive gestures, speech patterns, and emotional expressions—that might be unfamiliar to the Korean audience—to shine through. This enabled the audience to actively engage with the theater through clapping and interjections and enjoy a uniquely reinterpreted pansori performance.
The appeal of Kang Boreum's work—simultaneously accessible, engaging, and provocative—stems from her proactive approach to interrogating contemporary discourse. For Kang Boreum, the theater transcends mere space for representation. It is not limited to the hierarchical dynamic of 'observer' versus 'knower' but is actively reimagined as a site of sensory transformation and subversion of norms through the interplay of auditory and tactile experiences and a space for different bodies to interact playfully. This reimagining has been particularly noticeable in her recent pieces that feature disabled actors. In Theater Pan-tasy, Kang Boreum challenges the conventional enlightenment narrative of disability theater by exploring themes of disability and sexuality through a scene where a disabled actor portrays a villain and exposes the desires of a villain. Meanwhile, in Midsummer Train Play, she reinvigorates the theater's role as a space of desire by facilitating encounters with disabled and non-disabled artists or audiences through shared experiences of music, food, and other mundane preferences. This approach not only surpasses traditional formats of accessible theater but also opens new possibilities for those who might otherwise be excluded from theater to engage with and relate to the audience.
The extent to which Kang Boreum's work may evolve remains an open question, which only heightens our anticipation of her future projects. We look forward to witnessing what is to come from an artist so down to earth who probes and questions through every organ of her body. While we support her creative endeavors, we hope that her work does not become confined to the familiar realms of 'play' or remain in the minutiae of 'private' actions. Weighty subjects, indeed, may demand and deserve their corresponding forms.
Jury Members: Kang Ryangwon, Kim Kiran, Kim Ockran
Kang Boreum
Jury’s Statement
The judges of the 2024 15th DOOSAN Yonkang Art Award present director Kang Boreum as the recipient. Kang Boreum, director of the group Project Readymade, has consistently explored themes involving the intersection of diverse bodies and voices, including those of women, workers, youth, artists, queer individuals, and people with disabilities.
Kang Boreum is a director who evolves through her theatrical practice. Since her debut with The Readymade Life (2017), she has diligently produced work, including Modern-girl Times (2018 I'm Not Even That Contemporary: Apology Department Store (2020), Here, Once, Lady Gaga (2021), Theater Pan-tasy (2022), Practice of Free (2023), Internal Organs*Long-Term Memory (2024), Where is the Nearest Accessible Restroom? (2024), and Midsummer Train Play (2024). Throughout her practice, she has incorporated various performance formats that explored ways of interacting with the actors and the audience. By integrating oral history, exhibitions, pansori, aries, and immersive experiences, she has continued to expand the scope of theatrical expression. At the same time, she has demonstrated an unmatched talent for bringing new experiences to the audience, introducing social issues in theatrical ways rather than through activism. Her steadily high level of execution from piece to piece, despite varying formats, inspires confidence in her capabilities.
A notable aspect of Kang Boreum's work is her ability to highlight the actors. She shows respect for the unique traits of her collaborators, allowing them to express their own personalities and voices freely. For instance, in Here, Once, Lady Gaga, disabled actor Ha Ji-sung, who portrayed a non-disabled character, overcame the usual pressures to conform to his co-actors' pace and performed at his own rhythm. Similarly, Cameroonian immigrant artist Laure MAFO, featured in Practice of Free, presented herself authentically on stage, allowing her distinctive gestures, speech patterns, and emotional expressions—that might be unfamiliar to the Korean audience—to shine through. This enabled the audience to actively engage with the theater through clapping and interjections and enjoy a uniquely reinterpreted pansori performance.
The appeal of Kang Boreum's work—simultaneously accessible, engaging, and provocative—stems from her proactive approach to interrogating contemporary discourse. For Kang Boreum, the theater transcends mere space for representation. It is not limited to the hierarchical dynamic of 'observer' versus 'knower' but is actively reimagined as a site of sensory transformation and subversion of norms through the interplay of auditory and tactile experiences and a space for different bodies to interact playfully. This reimagining has been particularly noticeable in her recent pieces that feature disabled actors. In Theater Pan-tasy, Kang Boreum challenges the conventional enlightenment narrative of disability theater by exploring themes of disability and sexuality through a scene where a disabled actor portrays a villain and exposes the desires of a villain. Meanwhile, in Midsummer Train Play, she reinvigorates the theater's role as a space of desire by facilitating encounters with disabled and non-disabled artists or audiences through shared experiences of music, food, and other mundane preferences. This approach not only surpasses traditional formats of accessible theater but also opens new possibilities for those who might otherwise be excluded from theater to engage with and relate to the audience.
The extent to which Kang Boreum's work may evolve remains an open question, which only heightens our anticipation of her future projects. We look forward to witnessing what is to come from an artist so down to earth who probes and questions through every organ of her body. While we support her creative endeavors, we hope that her work does not become confined to the familiar realms of 'play' or remain in the minutiae of 'private' actions. Weighty subjects, indeed, may demand and deserve their corresponding forms.
Jury Members: Kang Ryangwon, Kim Kiran, Kim Ockran