Talchum in Venice

After its great success at the Venice Carnival 2023, the Korean Maskedance of Talchum is back in Venice!

 

With a history stretching back almost a thousand years, the Talchum still boasts tens of thousands of fans throughout South Korea, where being able to watch this sort of all-Oriental 'Commedia dell'Arte' is considered almost a must for a varied audience that brings together the most diverse generations. 

 

The origins of this particular dance are rather poor: it was in fact the people who, in the various villages of the Korean Middle Ages, on the one hand animated the various characters and, on the other, enjoyed the shows staged in the squares. Just like our Commedia dell'Arte, the Talchum was nothing more than a satirical transposition of the daily life of the time, where the main figures of the community - from the rich landowner to the peasant, from the beautiful single girl to the greedy old merchant, from the easily corruptible monk to the vicious old woman - were pilloried, becoming the protagonists of absurd events bordering on the grotesque.

 

Today, this tradition is mainly celebrated in the city of Andong, where the annual National Maskdance Festival is held, which for seven days transforms the large city park into a festival full of sounds, colours, and costumes from all parts of the Far East. Through a collaboration agreement signed at the beginning of October between the Korea Foundation of Culture and Ethics and the Venetian events company Wavents, this festival has sought to consolidate with the Venice Carnival a relationship of friendship and mutual collaboration aimed at creating a worldwide network of masked communities. Another element that unites the two cities is the fact that both have been declared World Heritage Sites by Unesco, further reinforcing their potential role as a bridge between West and East, which is particularly significant on the eve of the celebrations of the 700th anniversary of Marco Polo's death (who, although he did not visit the city, did mention the Korean peninsula), nevertheless mentioned the Korean peninsula in his "Il Milione" as "Cauli", transliteration of the name Gāolí, Chinese translation of Goryeo, abbreviated form of Goguryeo, i.e. one of the three main kingdoms of the Korean peninsula at the time, together with Baekje and Silla).

 

Appointment then on Wednesday 25 October at 4 p.m. in Campo Santo Stefano in Venice, to get involved with the sounds and the multicoloured masks of Talchum, which for the occasion will bring together artists from Andong, Dongrae, Gangnyeong and Gangneung for a great millenary feast in the name of friendship, history and culture!