Installation view ⓒ Mihakgwan

The exhibition 《Let’s Dance Sufi!》, selected for the 2023 Visual Arts Creation Fund Outstanding Exhibition Support by the Arts Council Korea, will be held from October 20 (Fri) to October 29 (Sun), 2023, at Oil Tank Culture Park T4 in Sangam-dong, Seoul. This exhibition is curated by Seul Bi Lee, an independent curator and director of the exhibition space Mihakgwan.

《Let’s Dance Sufi!》 takes the Sufi dance, a ritual originating from Sufism, as its central theme and expands the concept of religious dance into contemporary artistic performance, exploring the aesthetic implications of performance from various perspectives. This exhibition draws connections between shamans, who mediate between the divine and human through ecstatic rituals, and contemporary artists, who experience ecstasy during their performances. The exhibition seeks to extract and document the techniques of ecstasy embedded in artists’ performative experiences through diverse media.

The concept of "recording" performance is a key focal point of the exhibition. One of the defining characteristics of performance art, distinguishing it from other genres, is its temporal nature—a live, ephemeral act that exists only in the present and is shared between the performer and the audience in a singular moment. The physical presence of the performer, the interactions with the audience, the emotional exchanges, and the personal experiences during the performance cannot be fully replicated through documentation.

During the 2021 Visual Arts Creation Fund Pre-Exhibition Research Workshop, the project explored the fundamental impossibility of fully capturing performance and developed an alternative documentation method called "Mu-bo" (舞譜)—a term used to differentiate the notation of movement from conventional musical scores. Just as musical notation records sound, "Mu-bo" functions as a score for movement, offering an alternative approach to documenting performance. The artists in the exhibition engaged in discussions about their experiences of ecstasy in performance and translated these experiences into visual and sculptural expressions.

《Let’s Dance Sufi!》 presents these Mu-bo notations alongside the artists’ works, exploring the relationship between dance, performance, shamanism, and art, while questioning the fundamental (im)possibility of recording performative experiences. The exhibition features five artists and collectives whose works explore the interplay of movement, belief, and ritualistic gestures: Lyon Eun Kwon, who examines the physical and symbolic aspects of movement; Dew Kim, who emphasizes the queer characteristics of shamanism through performance; Yohan Hàn & Chak, who integrate body, dance, sensory experiences, SNS chat platforms, and sound in their performances; IM Youngzoo, who explores signs of surreal religious experiences entangled with human belief systems through video, painting, and installation; and Black Jaguar, who investigates the performative articulation of political and identity-based struggles, exploring the potential for solidarity.


Installation view ⓒ Mihakgwan

Ghost Group presents a trance-state performance as the exhibition's opening act. Trance is a state of heightened concentration where certain mental or physical faculties relax, creating a paradoxical condition of simultaneous intense focus and relaxation. Ghost Group interprets this state as an alternative form of wakefulness, expressing it through movement.

Lyon Eun Kwon reinterprets their previous performance An Old Performance, originally presented in 2021 as part of Arko Arts Theater’s archive project "Platform of the Night". This performance is rooted in "Samjaemagi," a shamanic practice for warding off misfortune, and involves mimicking objects or phenomena to symbolically reproduce similar outcomes. The performance culminates in burning, burying, discarding, and throwing rituals, with accompanying exhibition materials such as "Choreographic Notes and Scores for 'An Old Performance'" (2023).

Inside the circular exhibition space, Dew Kim’s installation The Way of the Cross (2022-23) reinterprets Jesus' Passion through voguing hand gestures. The 14 sculpted hands reference the 14 Stations of the Cross, merging Christian iconography with voguing, a dance style that originated in Harlem’s Black and queer communities in the 1960s. Kim’s work critiques religious narratives by recontextualizing Christian gestures within the cultural framework of voguing.


IM Youngzoo, Waiting M, 2021, 4-Channel video installation © IM Youngzoo

IM Youngzoo’s Waiting M (2021-22) revisits the 1990s Korean drama "M", where a green-eyed protagonist predicts an apocalyptic viral outbreak. The work reflects on many doomsday prophecies that have come and gone—just as New Year's Eve bells ring in another cycle of renewal. The artist’s new work Calming Signal (2023) explores dog behavior in moments of distress, drawing parallels between ritualistic human movements and Sufi dance. The video captures the restless yet rhythmic movements of Sufi dancers, highlighting the embodied nature of anxiety and devotion.

Yohan Hàn & Chak’s Gaia Notation (2023) references ancient Sumerian clay tablets, exploring movement notation as a sacred language. Their work incorporates symbols that allude to creation myths, ritualistic states, and divine-human relationships. Black Jaguar presents the video and sound work The End of Summer (2023) alongside Artists Visiting from Seoul (2022), which was filmed at Gangjeongcheon, Jeju—a site of both spiritual and political tensions due to its proximity to a military base. The film captures the disconnect between local regulations and artistic expression, mirroring historical restrictions on shamanic practices. Additionally, the artist’s Birds (2023) series explores themes of climate crisis, deforestation, and ecological displacement, portraying birds as marginalized beings.

The exhibition opens with Ghost Group's performance on October 20 at 19:30, with a special late-night viewing until 21:00. Throughout the exhibition period, performances will take place over three days: Lyon Eun Kwon performs on October 21 and 22 at 13:00 and 17:00 (four performances total); Chak performs October 21 and 22 at 14:00 and 18:00, and on October 29 at 18:00 (five performances total). From October 23 to 29, a daily guided tour will be held at 13:00, and on October 28, a special workshop "Let’s Create Sufi Dance!" will be offered for free. Further details on the exhibition and programs will be announced via Mihakgwan’s official Instagram (@mi_hak_gwan).

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