Ireland House Newsletter
Autumn Cultural Programme
Autumn Cultural Programme
Réalta at Jeonju International Sori Festival (08 – 12 October)
Founded in 2001, Jeonju International Sori Festival (JISF) (전주세계소리축제) is Korea's main festival for traditional music. Since 2011 the event has welcomed traditional performers from all over the world and is considered one of Korea’s finest exhibitions of world music. In 2012 the JISF was voted in the top 25 of world music festivals by British based music magazine 'Songlines'.
Réalta a Belfast based Irish traditional Music band will perform at this years festival between 08 – 12 October. Réalta are described as taking a lively, exciting and respectful approach to Irish traditional music.
They will make two performances at the festival as well as conducting a 50 minute workshop. Their participation in the festival is sponsored by Culture Ireland a Division within the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht.
Réalta will peform at the JISF on the following dates:
19:00 - 08 October 2014 - Noli Madang, Sori Arts Centre - Outdoor, Jeonju (30 min performance)
17:30 - 09 October 2014 - Kyung Ki Jeon - Outdoor, Jeonju (30 min performance)
14:00 - 12 October 2014 - Yeo Myeong Camera Museum / Outdoor, Jeonju (50 min workshop)
For more information on the JISF http://www.sorifestival.com/2014html/english/
Réalta's Homepage: http://www.realtamusic.com/
'Arctic Traces' Exhibition at the Korean International Art Fair (KIAF)
Arctic Traces is an Irish/Korean collaboration which is 1 of 5 pieces selected for ART FLASH an interactive media feature for the upcoming Korea International Art Fair (KIAF) which will run from Thursday 25 September - Monday, 29 September. ART FLASH is a specially curated, mega-exhibition targeted for a general audience.
This collaboration between Karen Power and Sungpil Han emerged from a recent residency that they both did in The Arctic Circle in 2013. The project is based on the video and sound recording made in the Arctic. The project allows people to move within a designated space and feel as if they have entered the arctic and Antarctic by using the mediums of sounds, image and space to convey the regions turbulent past, present and future.
KIAF is Korea's largest art fair and throughout its 4 days it will see over 80,000 visitors. The fair includes a wide variety of art from painting, sculpture, and print to photography and media. This is the first Irish involvement in the KIAF.
Karen Power is an Irish composer who focuses on acoustic instruments and everyday sound-objects and sounds capes in her work. She has been awarded national and international awards and honorary mentions for her work and has represented Ireland internationally on a number of occasions.
Korea International Art Fair (KIAF) is hosted by Korea Galleries Association, and will be held at Seoul COEX Hall A&B on SEP 25th (THU) - SEP 29th (MON), 2014.
For more information on the Artist Karen Power and her work: http://www.karenpower.ie/Home.html
Karen Powers participation is supported by the KIAF and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade's 'Cultural Relations' fund.
Can you hear the Arctic? 2013 by Karen Power
The Ceilidh , Saturday 18 october 1 - 6pm
Saturday 18 October marks the return of the Annual Autumn Irish Association of Korea Ceili. This year’s event is organised in collaboration with the St Andrew’s Society of Seoul and is being branded by the organisers as a ‘Celtic cultural festival’ celebrating the shared musical and dance traditions of both countries.
The festival will have a host of traditional music and dance performances reflecting both Irish and Scottish styles including a Scottish piper, Scottish country dancers as well as Irish musicians and dancers performing throughout the day.
As always the Ceilidh will include a healthy amount of audience participation for those wishing to learn some new moves.
‘The Ceilidh ‘ is a family friendly event and will run from 1pm to 6pm in D Cube city park Sindorim station Exit 1, Line 1&2. Admission is free.
'The Ceilidh' is supported by Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade's 'Cultural Relations' fund.
For more information on 'The Ceilidh' check out the IAK website, Twitter and Facebook pages:
Website: http://iak.co.kr/
Twitter @IrishinKorea
'The Ceilidh' Facebook Event Page:
19th Busan International Film Festival (BIFF) 2 - 11 October
With an audience of over 200,000 the Busan International Film Festival (BIFF) is undoubtedly one of Asia’s and Korea’s premier film events. Last year saw the BIFF feature 11 Irish films in a programme titled ‘Rogues, Rebels and Romantics: A Season of Irish Cinema’.
Continuing on Ireland’s representation at the BIFF three Irish films will be shown in 2014. A horror film called ‘the Canal’, John Boorman’s ‘Queen and Country’ and Ken Loach’s ‘Jimmy’s Hall’. Although Ken Loach is a renowned UK director both the story and its stars include Irish talent and were filmed on location in Ireland.
The Canal, Queen and Country, and Jimmy’s Hall all received support from Bord Scannán na hÉireann/the Irish Film Board.
The 19th Busan International will take place from 02 October to 11 October at 7 Theatres across the city.
For more information visit http://www.biff.kr/structure/eng/default.asp
The Canal
The Canal will screen as part of the BIFF’s Midnight Passion event. The film, written and directed by Ivan Kavanagh, has already screened at national and international events including the Tribeca Film Festival, San Diego Comic Con and the Galway Film Fleadh. The Canal is Kavanagh’s second film to screen at Busan, following The Fading Light at the 2010 event.
Shot in Dublin in 2013, The Canal tells the story of David Williams (Evans) and his wife, Alice (Hannah Hoekstra), who move into a beautiful period house by the canal with their small child, Billy. As David begins to suspect that his wife is cheating on him, he also starts to have nightmarish visions of an evil presence he believes inhabits his home.
Showing times:
http://www.biff.kr/eng/html/program/prog_view.asp?idx=12766&c_idx=104&sp_idx=&QueryStep=2
Queen and Country
Queen and Country was written and directed by John Boorman and will screen in the world cinema category of the BIFF.
Set in 1952, the film stars Caleb Landry Jones as an 18-year-old British man who joins the National Service and meets an amoral prankster who becomes his friend. They are assigned as instructors in a training camp while others are shipped out to fight in the Korean War.
The film is a sequel to Boorman’s 1987 Oscar-nominated film Hope and Glory. The film also stars Pat Shortt, Sinead Cusack, Callum Turner, David Thewlis and Richard E. Grant.
Showing times:
http://www.biff.kr/eng/html/program/prog_view.asp?idx=14058&c_idx=99&sp_idx=&QueryStep=2
Jimmy’s Hall
Released to strong reviews and box office in May 2014, Jimmy’s Hall was directed by Ken Loach, written by Paul Laverty and produced in Ireland by Element Films.
The film was officially selected at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival. Shot on location in Leitrim and Sligo, Jimmy’s Hall tells the story of Jimmy Gralton, who set up a dance hall on a rural crossroads in a sharply divided Ireland.
Showing times:
http://www.biff.kr/eng/html/program/prog_view.asp?idx=14016&c_idx=99&sp_idx=&QueryStep=2
Seoul International Writers Festival (SIWF) - 21 - 27 September
Under the theme of “Eros and Dream,” the 2014 5th Seoul International Writers’ Festival (SIWF) will bring together a total of 28 writers, from Korea and all across the globe to Seoul’s historic neighborhood of Bukchon from September 23 through 27.
Book readings will take place at the Bukchon Changwoo Theater on September 23 and 24, and then at the NaMu Modern & Contemporary Art Gallery on September 25 and 26.
The biennial literary festival will welcome Northern Irish poet Dr Sinead Morrissey to Korea for the first time. Dr Morrissey the recently announced winner of the ‘Irish times poetry Now award’ for 2014 has countless accolades to her name such as the prestigious ‘Lannan Foundation Fellowship and the Patrick Kavanagh poetry Award.
In January of this year she received the T.S Eliot prize for her fifth collection Parallax. Sinead received her BA and PHD degrees from Trinity College Dublin and is currently a writer in residence and lecturer at Queens University Belfast.
Reading & Performance - "Dreams written on a page, love envisioned in words"
Venue: Bukchon Chongwoo Theatre
Date: Tuesday, 23 September
Time: 7 - 8:30 pm
Dr Sinead Morrissey will perform a reading
Free Talks - "Eros and dream in my literary works"
Venue: W stage
Date: Thursday, 25 September
Time: 4 - 5pm
Dr Sinead Morrissey and Lee, Young-Kwang talk about poetry, literature and their work.
For more information on the SIWF and the program of events visit: http://siwf.klti.or.kr/
National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea to welcome Irish Artist
National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea (MMCA) in association with UNESCO-Aschberg Bursary for artists programme have awarded Irish visual Artist Kevin Gaffney a 3 month residency at the MMCA, National Studio in Changdong, Seoul. Kevin will begin his residency on 24 September.
Kevin Gaffney is a visual artist working in film and photography. In 2011, he graduated from the Royal College of Art's MA Photography & Moving Image, and was awarded an Honorary Mention from the Startpoint Prize for Emerging Artists in the Czech Republic.
In 2012, he was awarded the Little White Lies Award from the London Short Film Festival. In 2014, he received a Film Project Award from the Arts Council of Ireland to create a new film as artist in residence at the Taipei Artist Village, Taiwan.
For more information on Kevin and his work: http://www.kevingaffney.co.uk/
Information on the MMCA residency programmes: http://www.moca.go.kr/eng/artStudio/artStudioMain.do?menuId=7000000000
Asian Gaelic Games
19th Annual Asian Gaelic Games - 10 - 12 october
The 19th Annual Asian Gaelic Games will run from Friday, 10 October to Sunday 12 October in Kula Lumpur, Malaysia. More than 20 clubs from across 15 countries in Asia will compete in Kuala Lumpur at the continents centrepiece GAA tournament.
Korea is no exception to this with no less than 4 teams representing Seoul Gaels and 1 ladies team representing Laochra Busan. Laochra Busan's men’s team will combine with their Japanese counterparts to compete in the tournament.
In addition to the focus of the tournament on the regions football exploits, fans and enthusiasts will be entertained by a hurling competition as part of the Asian County Boards commitment to grow the game in the region. For the first time, a Korean hurling team will take to the field with representatives from all three clubs in the ROK.
Seoul Gaels have gone one step further this year by fielding a team known as the 'exiles' a combination of players from Seoul Gaels teams of the past 10 years. Chairman of Seoul Gaels, Declan Griffin explains “It’s a great way to get people who otherwise wouldn’t get a chance to compete at the AGG’s again. The members of the team will be coming from all over- Ireland, The Middle East, China and there are still a few based on Korea. "
Embassy Seoul would like to wish all the Korean teams participating in the AGG’s the very best of luck.
For more information on the competition check out the tournament website: www.asiangaelicgames.info/2014/