[Concept to Realization]

Organization

Nottle Theatre Company

Nottle Theatre Company(Nottle) is a group of creators experimenting and creating various performance languages. It is also a repertoire troupe that implements the sustainability of play through collaboration and exchanges between domestic and foreign artists based on the region. It is also a group of artistic activists who strike towards the point where the region and the art interface.

Succeeding its establishment in 1993 at Wonju, the Gangwon Province; the Nottle accomplished a creative base in Munmak ooyong-ri in 2001 and has continued to practice, research, and do workshops while dwelling as a community to achieve high-quality work. They have transformed their creative activities into experimental attempts such as international co-production and multi-genre collaboration.

The community of Nottle is not only limited to collectivity and habitability, they began as an alternative attempt to increase the efficiency of creating and finding new modes of production. Currently, they aim for the community spirit which shares the entire creation process within and completes the work as an equal creators.

There is one director who is also a representative, four actors, and one producer, all who are active as Nottle. Lee Eun-a, the oldest actor in the Nottle, has worked with various repertoires of the Nottle. Joo Dong-ha, who is interested in using body language in the performance, joined the Nottle through the audition. Actor Hong Han-byeol joined the Nottle after watching the Nottle’s showcase in his hometown, Jeju. Actor Song Jeong-hyun also became a member of Nottle due to his interest in various creative creations. Actors in the Nottle perform together but also specialized in creating individual performances with numerous themes. Each of them has a unique skill in expressing their creative world both in group and individual performances.

Since 2014, the Nottle had produced international co-creation performances with the Mexican Art Organization (TETIEM A.C.) and has premiered in Mexico in 2017. Hereafter, the network in Mexico extended to Peru; in 2018, the Nottle participated in Encuentro AYACUCHO, Latin America's largest theater festival & exchange program. They had the honor to perform their work and master classes as the first Korean participating group. They also worked with the Peruvian Art Organziaton Komilfo Teatro, producing co-creation workshops and showcases both in Peru and Korea. As these continued, Komilfo Teatro and SHAYA Teatro in Peru were first introduced to Korea through the Hooyong Festival; and Eugenio Barba, the founders of Theater Anthropology and Julia Valery visited the Hooyong Arts Center. The Nottle surely had been working with various artists and art organizations/institutions throughout Australia, Indonesia, Japan, and France. However, the projects with Latin American art organizations had significance to share as an international collaboration with Latin American art organizations began at a time when the entry barriers were high. Thus, it was a great opportunity to recognize the sustainability and connectivity of international exchange as it allowed collaboration with the art organizations/institutions in Peru.

• The Hooyong Performing Arts Center

The Hooyong Performing Arts Center, which opened in 2001, is a "creative space for artists" and a "cultural space for audiences"; is a renovated space of  Hooyong Elementary School, which closed in 2000. Artist-in-Residence, international co-production, and creative creation workshops are held annually and various performances, festivals, and space-specific projects are held for the audience. It has diligently walked its path as a residence and creative space for domestic and foreign artists: a space for art education and festivals for the community and a space for training and networking for performing artists. Artist-in-Residence operated for the first time in the field of performing arts in Korea to expand the area of regional-based creative space. It is also a place where various creative creations are born in a space in which the original form of the closed school is artistically reinterpreted (a theater that was renovated from a science classroom, a gallery that was renovated from an oil warehouse, a theater using a warehouse, and a dormitory-type artist's residence space).

The Hooyong Performing Arts Center has played various roles as a foundation for producing and announcing experimental creations; a platform where contemporary domestic and international artists interact; the artist home where their work and daily life coexist; and a cultural space that communicates with local audiences.

• The Hooyong Festival

The Hooyong Festival, which began in 2014, is a performance festival that introduces domestic and international high-quality performances and experimental stages. Every year, performances with various artistic values are showcased and workshops and conferences are held for the artists as well. Corresponding to the contemporary art trend, it’s recasting its process to support the performance production of a single artist and make sure that performance showcases at the festival as well. The countries that were yet had been introduced in Korea: German, Japanese, and Peruvian art groups has had premiered their works at the Hooyong Festival.

The basis of the Hooyang Festival is the International Workshop Festival, which started in 2004 and continued for 7 years then. The International Workshop Festival focused on creative creation workshops, and training of the artists, and emphasized creative exchanges between artists. Hence, the Hooyang Festival developed into a more comprehensive form of bridging artists and audiences by way of performances and connecting artists to one another through workshops.

Agung Dancing Center(ADC) 

It is a new art home for Agung Gunawan as a founder's, ADC in history is the real home where Agung was born.  From a small village located between the Prambanan temples and south of  Mount Merapi, he began to learn about dance and art in 1983.  On March 30, 2021, when Agung was 50 years old, he decided to establish Agung Dancing Center  ( ADC)  as a new expression platform space to interpret and reflected from Agung's artistic life journey.

Vision and Mission

1. ADC is spirit of art to continues to act even in difficult times.

2. ADC is a home for artistic expression, as a practice space, 

3. ADC is Agung's Manifest - 'Art is Life, Life is Art

Two pillars are the instrument to understand and practice the Agung's manifest: 'Art is Life & Life is Art. These will be a backbone of the practice at and throughout the dance work. This home center, therefore, wishes to offer an opportunity to feel and sense the meaning of art and life and its balance.

Project

'My Body' - Workshops & Showcase

Organized by : Nottle Theater Company

In Collanoration with : Agung Dancing Center

• Workshops

(Indonesia) 2022. 07. 14-15

(Korea) 2022. 08.3-10

• Showcase & Artists talk

Date: 26 July 2022

Venue : Agung Dancing Center(Indonesia)

• Performance

(Wonju, Korea) 2022. 08. 11-12 The Hooyong Performing Arts Center

(Masan, Korea) 2022. 08. 19, Masan Art Center

Nottle Theater Company x Agung Dancing Center, 'My Body' Workshops, 2022.7.

Nottle Theater Company x Agung Dancing Center, 'My Body' Making Film, 2022.7.

Collectivity, Habitability and Pursuing horizontal relationship for co-production

• Wonju, Regional Community and Discovery of the Audience

In order to make a good play, a space to stay and practice together was needed. To do so, the space needed to be a venue for the performance and had to be an accommodation for our members. In that context, the school was a perfect space. So we visited many closed schools and then found 'Hooyong Elementary School.' Hooyong Elementary School wasn’t too big or too small; nor too far from the city, in fact, it was near to the village. With that, we settled there in 2001. As a regional community, the residents of Hooyong-ri were the artist's neighbors, friends, and very first audiences. There was also a significant result of  regional-based art as children grew up watching artists' creative activities and became artists.

• Co-creation begins as everyone starts to think together

Even in the case of the same subject, there is a diversity of perspectives that come from differences in cultural, social, and traditional backgrounds. If you want to approach the theme and aesthetics of the performance from a universal view, then international co-creation should be a must, not an option. Through international co-creation, the aesthetic growth as a creator is meaningful for sure, yet, there is also a possibility to overcome the limitations of artistic creation; the mutualistic understanding of culture; the expansion of the worldview. Sharing the process as a member of the creative team is a work in which that meaningful results can be expected in the sense that financing, promotion, marketing, and creation are all done together.

In co-creation, it is important to maintain a horizontal relationship in the process of creative creation. There is a big difference in the process of completing the pre-determined concept from one side as a leader of the production. There are also limitations with that, as the consideration of the cultural and historical background of creative members is also important. Conflicts can be encountered if these various aspects are not considered and only the completeness of the concept has proceeded. Not to mention that these conflicts which arose from the lack of cultural and historical understanding are not easily resolved. Sometimes these conflicts can extend to ethnic and national conflicts. As such, there is a limitation that co-creation will proceed slowly. It is important to take one step at a time with an adequate understanding of each other. Nevertheless, the co-creation will bear fruit gradually over time. As much as the time and process that each other go through together, new things are constantly discovered and it expands towards forming various relationships.

It was in 2003 that the Nottle began co-creation production with artists from five Asian countries (Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, Australia, and Korea). It took about five years: after the first year of sharing own’s aesthetics and perspective, the exchange of  "technology-embodied knowledge & language, practice-based attitude" as a performance creator was done in the second year, in the third year, the direction of the theme was discussed, and in the fourth year the preparation of the performance was done and the actual performances at the last. Through each process, everyone could see their growth as an artist and continue to work significantly in their performance scenes now. The process of co-creation bore fruit.

Indonesia is a country that maintains a deep tradition in performing arts such as dance and theater and has a rare cultural phenomenon in which traditional styles are still maintained and used in everyday life.

In the case of Bali, the entire area prepares and hosts a performance based on religious offerings every year, enough to be called a "Theater City." Although it varies from region to region, Yogyakarta is the most art-developed region in Indonesia and has produced many artists. Due to the influence of the royal family who enjoyed art historically, most local people are no different from artists. The culture of hundreds of people gathering in each village to dance together and watch plays till late at night has enriched the city and country artistically.

Traditional performing arts in Indonesia naturally embraced religious change (Buddhist-Muslim-Christian-Muslim). The body language in the performing art is also expressed as "God's movement" as they emphasize religious worship and communion with nature.