Yi Sang à Paris [i]

june 13, 2010.

Of the many events lined up for the weeks to come I am especially looking forward to the upcoming Parisian exhibition and series of events around the work of the Korean poet Yi Sang / 이 상 (1910 - 1937), under the title Est-ce que la ligne a assassiné le cercle?

These past couple of weeks, while preparing my contribution to the exhibition (from June 23rd to July 4th), at La Générale I have been reading an awful lot of Yi Sang. Maybe needless to say, but I am totally incapable of reading Yi Sang's texts in the original language. Even though I often look at them in their Korean (and Japanese) form, I read the French and English translations of his words. This, and the 're/lent-less modern-ness' of Yi Sang's poems, makes that my working of Yi Sang feels like sitting opposite a huge, empty ball of polished glass: it is both utterly transparent and utterly inaccessible. That's a paradox, of course, but one that - rather to my own surprise - I find extremely inspiring.

Here's a picture of the little Korean barbecue last wednesday, June 9th 2010, at La Générale, to give you a taste of things to come.

The wednesday evening at La Générale continued with a number of performances with and around Donation, starting with, right after the barbecue, another prelude to Yi Sang. Luna Yoon Kyung read, accompanied by Rébus, a Korean (Google-)translation of A new ontology of music, an English text on 'postmusic', written and distributed by Nam June Paik in 1963 as part of his Monthly Review of the University for Avant-garde Hinduism.

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The four colorful designs above I gave as motto a line from "BOITEUX • BOITEUSE", one of the French-titled Yi Sang poems. A French translation of that line reads: Si on saisit les astres et qu'on les fend, il y aura au moins du bruit (an English translator rendered that same verse as iftheskywastornleasttheredbesomenoise).

The four images will be were projected onto the facade of a building at Federation Square in Melbourne, Australia, between approximately 9h35 and 9h50 pm Australian Standard Time, on Saturday June 12th June. They are both my contribution to the Facade Project and a first virtual part of my contribution to the Yi Sang à Paris exhibition: I work on a small visual/(no)sound installation that (like Yi Sang's work, I think) intends to be a gesture of giving that which is ungraspable. (The work comes with an online component, that in due time will live at yisang.soundblog.net.)

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Over the coming weeks, if you go around the French capital, chances are that you encounter Yi Sang's intriguing verses. At odd places. He is in Paris, after all. (Click the picture to enlarge)

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[ Poem by Rébus is the title of a recent highly recommended cassette release on Staaltape. One of its sides comprises two of the recordings Rébus made of Yi Sang's poems, recited by Kim Joeun at a number of selected public places Paris; one was recorded in a café in Montmartre, the other while riding the metro line 12. Yi Sang wanted to, very much so, but he never got the chance to visit Paris in his lifetime. ]

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[ Yi Sang à Paris : "Est-ce que la ligne a assassiné le cercle?". A cycle of performances, lectures, installations and concerts around the work of the Korean poet Yi Sang. La Générale, 14 avenue de Parmentier, Paris XI. ]

[ next Yi Sang entry: Read me a poem, Yi Sang! ]

tags: Yi Sang, Paris

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