Tradition as a Field of People: The Mobilization of Folkloric Practices by Art Collective Turŏng

Abstract:Traditional Korean performing arts such as mask dances and madanggŭk (a traditional theatrical art) became highly popular on university campuses in the 1970s and 1980s. Driven by this movement, Turŏng, a South Korean minjung art collective in the 1980s, actively incorporated elements of tradition and folklore in its work. Primarily produced collectively, Turŏng’s works embraced a number of Korean traditional practices, including motifs and colors from minhwa (folk art) and themes and methods from Buddhist painting and shamanism. In the 1980s, minjung art—a term literally meaning the art of “common people,” as opposed to that of elites or intellectuals—increasingly came to overlap with the notion of the nation (minjok), as minjung art became partially associated with progressive student movements. While Turŏng has previously been studied exclusively within the framework of the minjung art movement, this article shifts attention onto the group’s larger associations with the minjung cultural movement, a progressive and prodemocracy force, with particular focus on the emphasis of traditional practices. My aim is to read the folkloric practices in Turŏng within a broader context of representing the oppressed, rather than one of nationalist intent, particularly by considering Turŏng as a place where tradition was mobilized for the recovery of the minjung.