La Vague Coréenne

Be-Being’s first project is to reinterpret Youngsanjae, one of Buddhist art performance recently designated as No.50 of the Important Intangible Cultural Properties of Korea. They attempt to stage the traditional Buddhist music with dance and visual projection from contemporary point of view. In order to establish Korean Buddhist music as universal cultural heritage across the difference of religions and times and beyond the stereotyped tradition, they make a unique performance based on the original Buddhist music and visualize the invisible essence of Buddhist culture through dance and other images. On basis of study of Youngsanjae (Buddhist ritual), Beompae (Buddhist music), and Jakbop (Buddhist dance) for about one year, they recreate and continue the seventeen hundred years tradition of Buddhist art in a form of live-and-multimedia performance. This project expects to be a contemporary total art based on historical research and reinterpretation of the traditional Buddhist music and a stepping-stone for the next generations to make use of the original aesthetics of Buddhist art as base of creation.

The title Li and Sa refers to Do-Li (reason) and Sa-Sang (phenomenon), which are two different but complementary approaches of Buddhist philosophy. Under the tradition of Buddhism, the religion of enlightenment to elucidate the truth, Li represents an intellectual way to find the purpose of consciousness, and Sa represents an affectionate way to have sympathy for everything. The latter tenderly embraces the former so as to achieve a harmony between subjectivity and objectivity. The dual principle is also applied to Buddhist rituals and musical practices. Buddhist music project Li and Sa is an attempt to understand the philosophy embodied in Buddhist art and to reinterpret the traditional Buddhist music and dance from perspective of contemporary art. The orchestration is mainly based on the traditional Korean instruments including Gayageum, Haegum, Piri, Janggu, Buk, and Pansori, all of which are played by the members of Be-Being, and supplemented with other various musical instruments if needed in order to restore the traditional Buddhist music and to meet the musical requirements in general. In addition to music and dance, a video is projected on the stage to show a contemporary reinterpretation of visual images of Buddhist culture.