PP ㅂㅍ 2026
PP ㅂㅍ is an open project together with Pansori singer Soohyun Moon.
It is based on one part of the Pansori Simcheong-ga, Korean 범피중류, usually transcribed as Peompijunglyu. This song is about the travel of Simcheong, on the ship which takes her to the sea. There, she will be sacrified as gift for the dragon king of the sea, for the sake of the sailers, to ensure their safe travel, and good profit, for the upcoming year.
It is the inevitable existential loneliness, so touching and deeply shaped in the 범피중류, which is the pivotal point for our piece. On our stage, here, today, a number of thrown away items form the space. The singer moves between them, slowly, with a lot of resistance and restrictions. In case she hits one of the trashy islands, she also meets a short fragment from the original Pansori, and starts to variate, to explore, to touch it.
In this perspective, our piece is about something which is still there in the most desparate moment — when all desires, hopes, perspectives have come to an end. This exploration is carried out by a person whose dress consists of divergent parts, and who can only move in a somehow disabled way.
The electronic sounds are played by another person, sitting at the edge of the stage, looking at the wall, turning his back to the stage. These sounds are somehow parts of the architecture; they shape the acoustic space in a similar way as the found objects on stage shape the visual space: Islands of sounds, between long passages of silence.
Our piece startet in 2024 with a first performance in Seoul's Gravitation Field, in this version without electronics. The latter was added in 2025 in a concert at Kunstraum Tosterglope. In 2026 we extended the concept for more participation of the audience.
The title PP ㅂㅍ may point to an aspect of translation, and somehow of reception in general. Perception is necessarily selective; it misses something which was there, on the other side: PP is less than ㅂㅍ. But, if phantasy and creativity is there, it also adds something, and something new may arise from it. PP emphasizes the P, repeats it, looks at it, and reminds to the latin abbreviation PP which means: go on go on .....
Video by Hassan Sheidaei (Performance at Kunstraum Tosterglope 24 August 2025) ↗direct link