Opening festival
September 4–20, 2015
Asia Culture Center Theatre
38 Munhwajeondang-ro
Dong-gu
Gwangju 501-050
South Korea
T +82 (0)62 410 3617
Asia Culture Center Theatre (ACC Theatre) opens its doors with a festival that takes place from 4 to 20 September.
Asia is a region of dynamic changes overlapping with traditions. Asia is a way of thinking that challenges itself: a multidimensional concept that constantly calls for reworking, redefining, and revitalizing. Asia is a performative, organic framework for creativity.
Asia Culture Centre Theatre is part of the Asia Culture Center (ACC), a government-funded establishment housed in the heart of Gwangju City, cradle of the democratic movement in Korea.
ACC Theatre’s opening festival presents the essential approach of ACC Theatre and establishes its status on an international level. During the three-week period, 29 artists and 33 works will be presented. 16 works are creations or co-productions of ACC Theatre, 12 of which are world premieres of artists such as Kim Sung Hwan, Raya Martin, Zhao Liang or Apichatpong Weerasethakul.
ACC Theatre’s season will follow immediately afterwards and consists of the monthly Our Masters and Asia Window programs. Our Masters presents five unique artists, each of whom have changed the history of performing arts. The program is curated by Erasmus Prize winner Frie Leysen and presents legendary works by Robert Wilson, Tim Etchells, Christoph Marthaler, William Kentridge and Tatsumi Hijikata.
Asia Window invites five curators based in the Asian region to reflect and program around Asia’s crucial issues in a full-dimensional form encompassing performance, exhibition, symposium or publishing, and incorporate them into the discourses of Asian performing arts history.
The season is divided into two half-seasons and will take place in October and November 2015 as well as March, April and May 2016.
Apart from its festival and season programs, ACC Theatre is open to the community of the Gwangju region, focusing on residency and research programs. Community Window discovers innovative perspectives in the Gwangju area through open applications, seeking the contemporaneity of local arts. Asia Residency provides time and space for artists and critics from different countries to develop their visions functioning as a forum for artistic dialogue.
Tickets for the opening festival and the season are available at ACC Theatre’s website, or can be booked via telephone at T +82 (0)62 410 3617 or via email.
Artists in opening festival: Ricardo Bartis , Yamashita Zan, Tsai Ming-Liang, China National Peking Opera Company, Ho Tzu Nyen, Chandralekha, Zhao Liang, Wael Shawky, Okada Toshiki, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Kim Sung Hwan, David DiGregorio, Lee Leenam, Seo Hyun-suk, Tim Etchells, Kawaguchi Takao, Zhao Liang, Mark Teh, Su Wen-chi, Talgat Batalov, Abbas Kiarostami, Azade Shahmiri, Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook, Kim Jisun, Raya Martin, Romeo Castellucci, Claude Régy, Marlene Monteiro Freitas, Brett Bailey, Konstantin Bogomolov, Adachi Masao, Sakaguchi Kyohei
Artists in Our Masters: Philip Glass/Robert Wilson, Tim Etchells, Christoph Marthaler, Hijikata Tatsumi, William Kentridge
Curators for Asia Window: Helly Minarti, You Mi, Raya Martin/Antoine Thirion, Tarek Abou El Fetouh, Jang Young-gyu
Press contact
Suyeon Jong: asianartstheatre.fp [at] gmail.com