Jury’s Statement

KyungSung Lee  is a director of exceptional ability who utilizes a diverse range of sensory stage language to convey the problems that our society is confronted with today. He engages in genre-deconstructing, multimedia experiments and reduces our dependence on text, instead maximizing the possibilities of a message’s multisensory transmissibility with an exacting and critical mindset while actively utilizing media, installation, and performance.

Lee is a rare director who is willing to break down the boundaries of theater when the circumstances require it. His works often proceed not in the theater, but in the spaces of everyday life?a crosswalk, a square, a building, a private residence, a room in a hotel, and so on. By using actual spaces, his works allow us to re-experience a certain time in our lives in a way that makes us look back on parts of our daily lives that may have been carelessly overlooked. In this case, his works tear down the boundary between life and performance by transforming the fictiveness of a play into the substantiality of life. Thus, although his plays take the form of experimental theater, they approach the public in a manner that is fascinating and that feels familiar. His works are humorous and poetic. As reflected in the world of his works, his greatest strengths lie in his deep contemplation about life and society, his thorough deliberation about the social role of art, and, above all, his positive outlook and faith in humanity.

With an approach characterized by sincerity and gravitas, Lee and Creative VaQi have progressively grown and developed by overcoming the limitations often presented by so-called experimental groups, such as superficial sensory elements, fragile constructions, underdeveloped ideas, and an excessive sense of subject. Although the number of research-based plays has increased remarkably in the Korean theater field of late, it is difficult to find plays like those of Lee Kyeong-seong that precisely grasp the indicia of our times and thus expose the truth in our lives and in society. The reason that (unlike other experimental works) Lee’s works clearly embody images of our era and appropriately pose questions is because his presentation of an issue does not merely remain on the level of an abstract and superficial humanistic and social thesis. His works are always closely connected to specific daily life, community, and the spaces where they actually develop. Prior to creating his works, actors and staff members all physically stay in the space, breathe the space, and conduct long-term research.

For instance, Namsan Documenta, which was presented in March of this year at the Namsan Drama Center and its surrounding area, reflects the characteristics of Lee’s works quite well. Creative VaQi actors and the entire staff conducted research of documents about Namsan, the Central Intelligence Agency, and the Drama Center by digging out news clippings and reference materials and conducted extensive interviews with individuals who were directly or indirectly connected to them. With this research as a foundation, they engaged in discussions and created the scenes and structure of the play. Within this work process, one of the Lee’s greatest attributes as a director is that he does not force his actors and staff to follow his perspective. All of Creative VaQi’s productions are created via collaborative efforts. Lee’s positive reviews state that, better than anyone else, he plays a critical role as a mediator who raises the level of completion by facilitating cooperation between the participants in the production.

As one might expect from the title of Namsan Documenta, Lee’s works carry a sense of continuance and consistency. Namsan Documenta, which follows Practice of Theatre - Character Version (Seoul Marginal Theatre Festival, 2013) and Seoul Practice - Model, House (DOOSAN Art Center, 2014), is a type of “practice” series. Preceeding these works was 24 Hours - The Rite of Night, which was presented in 2011, as well as the follow-up Let Us Move Your Sofa, which was presented throughout the entire Gwanghwamun area. As we can see from the above, it is worthwhile to focus on Lee’s works in the sense that they are not finished one by one, have lasting power, and intensify the director’s critical outlook. This aspect suggest that his works are created as the result of his gaze and his in-depth contemplation of the society that we are living in. He is a director who casts his piercing perspective toward various events that are occurring in our society, ceaselessly deliberating over the roles of the theater and drama.

As in the words of Tadeusz Kantor, to be avant-garde is to be an optimist because one believes in human progression. KyungSung Lee  is a director who affirms and has faith in humanity. As such, this is a power that makes true avant-garde art possible. Of course, he has many questions yet to resolve; for example, the disconnect between the sense of subject and elements of expression, the looseness of composition, direct and coarse expression, and his tendency to depend on chance and interpretation rather than aesthetic integration?these are all issues that he must address. Nevertheless, his attitude is one that holds on tightly to the thread of continuous thought, and this attitude makes us anticipate that he will wisely address these issues and develop strongly as an artist in the coming future.