siren eun young jung, Public yet Private Archive, 2015, Mixed media, installation, Dimensions variable © siren eun young jung

《Trans-Theatre》is an archival exhibition by siren eun young jung that organizes her ongoing exploration of Yeoseong Gukgeuk, a genre of Korean theater, which she has been investigating since 2008. Unlike conventional linear narratives, the exhibition adopts a non-hierarchical arrangement of materials, approaching Yeoseong Gukgeuk from the perspective of gender performativity, with a focus on the repeated gender transitions of its performers and the embodiment of “becoming male” by female actors.

The exhibition space is divided into three sections. The first room presents performance videos and works directed by the artist herself. The multi-faceted direction allows for the crossing and interplay of perspectives and languages, expanding the layers of interpretation and appreciation. Moving to the room containing the materials collected by the artist, two critical texts provide reference points for analysis.

Aesthetician Yang Hyosil's text, Intervention and Modification Methods of a Female Artist in Women's Culture, maintains a critical perspective on gender performativity, expressing concern that the artist’s focus on the “becoming male” of female Yeoseong Gukgeuk performers may risk delving into the identity politics of a subculture. On the other hand, curator Ahn Sohyun’s essay, Archive and Death: On the Performativity of Trans-Theatre, responds to this concern by referencing Jacques Derrida's notion of the archive. It suggests that archives are driven by a death drive because they must perpetually fill empty spaces, leading to the inevitable reconstruction of materials that have lost their original context and direction.

In this archive without a center, the narrative of gender transition by female performers implies that the core or reality of the masculinity they perform is itself empty. Drawing from these analyses, viewers are prompted to question how the artist translates the gender transitions in Yeoseong Gukgeuk and what interpretative possibilities arise from these captured moments of transformation.

The artist sharpens the techniques and artistry of “becoming male” by creating gaps between the performers in costume and their backgrounds or by editing together continuous scenes. Although the fragmented masculinity in Yeoseong Gukgeuk hints at its inherent “flaws” passed down through oral tradition and gestures, the artist delicately separates the roles of Nimai, Sammai, and Gadakki—key character types in Yeoseong Gukgeuk—and encompasses the broader scope of masculinity performed by the actors. This approach reveals the generational and cultural variations of gender transitions.

The exhibition space, where isolated performers confront each other in juxtaposition, becomes a resonant space of multiple masculinities performed in a competitive dynamic, a shared void where collective transitions echo with affective tension. jung maintains a perspective of fascination with Yeoseong Gukgeuk without falling into it. However, her deliberate distancing is less like Odysseus resisting the temptation of the Sirens and more akin to translating the Sirens' voice. This method of distancing allows for a nuanced reading of the historical assembly of female traditional musicians in a male-dominated art society, as well as the folds of “becoming male” enjoyed in a vulnerable Yeoseong Gukgeuk community, exploited and held hostage by male authorities.

The artist's translation raises the question of how the affective dimension of gender transitions, once relished within the subculture of Yeoseong Gukgeuk, is being connected to today’s communities.


Installation view © Art Space Pool

The exhibition guides visitors to the next room, where meticulously organized materials shift from the dramatic gestures of performers to the faces of the community, to faint records of exchanged glances and shared stories. Projects involving veteran actors and collaborations with younger performers amidst the decline of Yeoseong Gukgeuk seem to be a contemporary response stemming from respect and fascination with a past subculture marred by shame and prejudice.

What other feminist perspectives are emerging for jung, who reinterprets Yeoseong Gukgeuk from a feminist viewpoint? What kind of responses will join her works that have woven together meanings long elusive? These responses, spoken in different languages but from not-so-distant places, must have resonated and tickled her ears. It leaves one curious about the responses jung listens to today and how she will craft her answers, maintaining a delicate tension between fascination and distance.

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