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Piano performance with messaging


I grew up in a place in South Korea called Gwangju, well-known because of a historical incident that happened in 1980: citizens who raised their voices in a pro-democracy movement against the government were annihilated in a coup d’état. In the uprising, many civilians, including those who did not participate in the protest, were killed, and military tanks smashed buildings near public spaces. Stories about this time were often told during my childhood. Students who were educated in my hometown would visit the national cemetery in Gwangju to remember victims and learn about this event. For a child growing up in Gwangju, this was something important to know about. However, when I moved to Seoul to enter an Arts High School, I realised that I was not welcome to speak about the event because the truth of what happened has been altered and suppressed for the general public. The story that I heard in my childhood was different from what my peers knew and was regarded as suspicious. Because of the lack of understanding of the event, people outside my hometown held stereotypes of people from Gwangju as rioters, protesters, and of the ‘left-wing’. I am shocked that such an important historical event can still cause divided views today. 

​In 1980 Yuji Takahashi collaborated with the Japanese artist Tomiyama Taeko to make a film documentary called Jayu-Gwangju (‘freedom of Gwangju’). According to his own notes in a manuscript, he chose to quote in his piece Korean tunes such as the traditional Korean funeral song (Sangyeosori); the song ‘Our hope is to be united’ that expresses the wish for unity of South and North Korea, and a folk song called ‘Bird, bird, the Blue bird’ which remembers the folk hero Jeon Bongjun of an earlier historical uprising in the nineteenth century. According to Forlivesi, Tomiyama and Takahashi's collaboration creates the need to "recover"—and thus re-read—the actual story of the events that these artists commemorate through their work of art. As long as the Psychological trauma has an "underground" history, and understanding it begins with rediscovering the history. Resolving trauma can begin when survivors develop a new mental "schema" for understanding what has happened. Recognising one's own traumatic experience and sharing it with others are two indispensable responses to rebuild a survivor's sense of order and justice.

“I don't know how the soldiers spotted me. I ran. In order to avoid being captured, I ran away to the river, despite the river being dirty... As time passed on, I watched a movie which reminded me of the time I ran away. I was haunted and couldn't watch the movie until the end. Listening now to Takahashi's music, I could once again feel my trauma, and an image of what I experienced. But his music gave me strength to resist and overcome my fears.” - Participant 6

"When I listened to the music, I was aware it is a depressing tunes from the start. When it happened on the 21st May, my aunt was expecting a child, and she was killed by a gunshot. It reminded me of my aunt when I listened to it.  Although I was young age, I can still recall feeling a little resentful of her for joining me the protest at the square." - Participant 2


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