Discover Korean Culture This Year with Korea/UK 2017-18 Festival

Following the British Council's announcement of UK/Korea 2017/18 which will see British artists visit Korea, the Korean Cultural Centre UK today announces the wide programme of Korea/UK 2017-18 over the next twelve months, with the UK playing host to leading Korean artists from range of disciplines.

Celebrating the friendship and co-operation between the two countries, the Korea/UK 2017/18 programme will present the finest Korean artists at events across the UK, in a year where 15 Korean performing companies are also represented at the largest arts festival in the world, the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

With musical showcases that range from K-Pop to classical, and performances from Korean companies on London's most prestigious dance stages including Sadler's Wells and The Place, there is a wide variety of cultural experiences to enjoy throughout the year. The closing concert at Southbank Centre (14 June 2018) will feature Korean-American conductor Han-na Chang, fast making her mark on the world of classical music, leading London-based Korean pianist Sunwook Kim and the Philharmonia Orchestra playing a programme that includes works by Rossini, Greig and Tchaikovsky.

The London Korean Festival 2017 with Feel Korea will launch the season, taking place on Saturday 8 July at Olympia London. Korean cuisine, Korean martial arts Taekwondo demonstrations, TAGO, a drumming group who performed sold-out shows at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2016, and a virtual experience of the PyeongChang 2018 Olympic Winter Games are among the attractions for families at the free day event. Following the daytime event, which is free to attend, a ticketed evening concert by K-pop sensations Highlight, EXID, KNK and SNUPER will take place at 7pm.

This summer four Korean companies will perform as part of Greenwich+Docklands International Festival (23 June - 8 July). The festival's Greenwich Fair event will play host to Creative Group SUMBI, CCOT, and People in Backpack and the festival's much loved annual programme of alfresco dance will be headlined by Modern Table (1 July 2017), a dance company who performed at The Place in October 2016. At Sadler's Wells Lilian Baylis studio, there will be a showcase aimed at the arts industry for Korean companies taking part in the 70th Edinburgh Festival Fringe (27 July 2017) which will feature extracts of contemporary Korean musicals, plays and physical theatre.

Demonstrating the diversity of the Korean music scene, a month-long K-Music festival in September will feature gigs from contemporary Korean bands. The festival opens with Black String who are known for their collaborative work with UK artists, appearing here alongside Kathryn Tickell at the Union Chapel. Other highlights include Woojae Park, whose experimental work with the Korean zither instrument the Geomungo features at Rich Mix in collaboration with British Asian sarod player Soumik Datta. The festival closes with a show from Jiha Park, who combines traditional Korean and Western instrumentation in her work.

In October Eun-Me Ahn, recognised as one of Asia's most sophisticated yet irreverent dance makers, will bring her company to Dance Umbrella to perform Let Me Change Your Name (24-25 Oct 2017). Completing the dance programme in May 2018, in partnership with The Place, a Korean Dance Week will be staged from the Korea National Contemporary Dance Company. In Leeds, K'arts Dance will present four pieces from their repertoire in collaboration with Northern School of Contemporary Dance (16 Nov 2017).

The visual arts programme for the Korea/UK season will see twenty institutions - including organisations in London, Bristol, Gateshead, Liverpool and Sheffield - host exhibitions, performances, public installations, workshops and residencies from leading and emerging contemporary Korean artists and producers. Across retrospective exhibitions - exploring seminal moments in contemporary Korean art - and brand new commissions, the season encourages Korean creatives to work alongside their UK peers, in order to survey some of the most influential and foremost Korean art to date.

Initiated with KCCUK's forthcoming exhibition Rehearsals from the Korean Avant-Garde Performance Archive, performance art plays a significant role throughout the season's programme.

Key programme highlights include the premier of a video and performance work by Turner Prize Award winner Douglas Gordon and dual exhibitions of the post-Dansaekhwa generation artist Kim Yong-Ik, cited by critics as heralding "the beginning of contemporary Korean art."

Alongside running an in-house programme dedicated to the season, KCCUK will also support and co-produce external projects, including a Frieze Project with Moon Kyungwon & Jeon Joonho at Frieze London; an exhibition at The Showroom by Jewyo Rhii & Jihyun Jung; UK/Korea Artists Residency Exchange Programme between 16 UK and Korean Institutions; a new public sculpture by leading South Korean artist Do Ho Suh, as part of the UK's annual Art Night festival; and new works at the Delfina's gallery by choreographer, dancer and performer Geumhyung Jeong, after having taken part in a residency at Delfina Foundation from April to June 2017.

The Korean Cultural Centre UK (KCC UK) was opened by the Korean Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in January 2008 in London with the aim of enhancing friendship, amity and understanding between Korea and the UK through cultural and educational activities. From the KCC's central London location near Trafalgar Square, a dedicated cultural team work to further develop established cultural projects, introduce new opportunities to expand the Korean events programme in the UK, and to encourage cultural exchange.

For more, follow @KCCUK and visit www.kccuk.org.uk.

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Programme Highlights:

23-25 June 2017
Greenwich+Docklands International Festival: Korean Focus
Greenwich Park Hill, Canary Wharf
Greenwich Fair will showcase three Korean performing arts companies: Creative Group SUMBI, CCOT, and People in Backpack.

26 June-19 Aug 2017
Rehearsals from the Korean Avant-Garde Performance Archive, KCCUK, Grand Buildings, 1-3 Strand, London, WC2N 5BW
Exploring the development of Korea's performance art scene during the late 60s and 70s. Historical performances such as Kun-Yong Lee's Snail Gallop (1975) will be re-enacted along with archive materials and seminal works by major artists who were instrumental forces I nthe Korean avant-garde history

1 July 2017
Greenwich+Docklands International Festival: Dancing City
Greenwich Park Hill, Canary Wharf
Modern Table's Men of Steel will be a headline performance at GDIF's much loved annual programme of alfresco dance

8 July 2017
London Korean Festival 2017
Olympia London, Hammersmith Road, Kensington, London W14 8UX
Festival to experience diverse aspects of Korean culture including K-pop, K- cuisine, and K-brands, featuring Four K-Pop idol groups including Highlight and EXID.

27 July 2017
Edinburgh Festival Fringe Showcase 2017
183 Rosebery Ave, Clerkenwell, London EC1R 4TJ
Showcasing four performances form Korean companies heading to Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Gruejarm Production's SNAP, Park Gol Box's Death City (The Power for Power Makes Death City, Go Theatre's Behind the Mirror, and Theatre Huam's Black and White Tea Room.
N.B: For industry audiences only

September 2017
K-MUSIC Festival 2017
Venue TBC
A month-long festival of Korean music including WooJae Park in collaboration with HunKyu Park and Soumik Datta.

18 September 2017
Douglas Gordon: Thin Air
KCCUK, Grand Buildings, 1-3 Strand, London, WC2N 5BW
A new performance/film installation work by internationally acclaimed and Turner Prize-winning Scottish artist Douglas Gordon, commissioned by Locus+.

28 Sept - 11 Nov 2017
Geumhyung Jeong at Delfina Foundation, London
In Jeong's practice as choreographer, dancer and performer, she constantly renegotiates the relationship between the human body and the objects that surround it. She has built up a 'collection' of everyday objects as part of her creative process upon which she bestows a bizarre, disconcerting life through an intense and risky interaction with her own body.

25 Sept - 4 Nov 2017
KCCUK 2017 Artist of the Year: Kim Yong-Ik KCCUK, Grand Buildings, 1-3 Strand, London, WC2N 5BW
Spike Island, Bristol (30 Sept - 17 Dec 2017)
KCCUK's annual Artist of the Year exhibition, in collaboration with Spike Island. Two complementary exhibitions by Kim Yong-Ik, heralded by critics as heralding "the beginning of contemporary Korean art"

24 - 25 Oct 2017
Dance Umbrella Festival
The Place, 17 Duke's Rd, Kings Cross, London WC1H 9PY
Center Stage Korea, Korea Arts Management Services, Korean Ministry of Culture, Sport and Tourism and the Korean Cultural Centre UK present Let Me Change Your Name by Eun-Me Ahn Dance Company

21 & 28 Oct 2017
Dance Umbrella Studio Saturday
Rambert, 99 Upper Ground, Lambeth, London SE1 9PP
Kyoung Shin Kim with Freddie Opoku-Addaie present their new collaboration work entitled 'Ordinary Stranger'
For professionals, by invitation only georgia@danceumbrella.co.uk

16 Nov 2017
K'arts Dance
The Riley Theatre, 98 Chapeltown Rd, Leeds LS7 4BH
K'arts Dance present four repertory pieces: 'Bow', 'Mob', 'Carcara', and 'No Comment', as a cooperative project with Northern School of Contemporary Dance.

20 Nov - 22 Dec 2017
Yong In Hong: Mine and Yours KCCUK, Grand Buildings, 1-3 Strand, London, WC2N 5BW
Phoenix Gallery, Exeter (23 Feb -21 April 2018)
Exploring how art is valued and exchange, this exhibition project will begin by Hong exchanging one of her artworks for an object in someone else's possession

7 May 2018
Korean Dance Week
The Place, 17 Duke's Rd, Bloomsbury, London WC1H 9PY
In partnership with The Place, a Korean Dance Week will be staged featuring the Korea National Contemporary Dance Company and other artists showcasing the best of contemporary dance from Korea.

14 June 2018
Korea/UK 2017-18 Closing Concert
Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre, Belvedere Rd, Lambeth, London SE1 8XX
Philharmonia Orchestra with Sun Wook Kim, Conducted by Han-Na Chang, performing the William Tell Overture, Grieg's Piano Concerto and Tchaikovsky's Fifth Symphony.

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Since 2008, KCCUK has been promoting Korea's vibrant cultural scene to UK audiences. KCCUK holds exhibitions across the visual arts, dance, music and design fields, alongside an education programme that seeks to develop knowledge of Korean heritage, history and culture. In 2008 the Korean Cultural Centre UK(KCCUK) was opened by the 'Korean Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism', under the jurisdiction of the 'Embassy of the Republic of Korea' London, a government body. The role of the Korean Cultural Centre in London is to enhance friendship, amity and understanding between Korea and the UK through cultural and educational activities. This includes staging an array of exhibitions, performances, and events, as well as liaising with the Korean Embassy in the UK and collaborating on external projects with the British Council in Korea.

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