In an abandoned resort on the South Korean island of Jeju, a group of people perform a symbolic funeral ritual to end a world built on hierarchies, division and destruction. A procession of non-conforming people – from musicians, artists and poets to anti-militant activists, environmentalists and diasporic, queer and trans people – carry a coffin together through the ruins of what turns out to be an abandoned resort on the South Korean island of Jeju. It soon becomes clear that this is no traditional Confucian funeral. Age and gender roles are subverted, the coffin is draped in dark camouflage colours and the traditional portrait of the deceased is replaced by a black mirror. In the field between funeral ritual, political protest and carnival performance, the procession marches through the ruins of capitalist modernity. Time and place begin to lose their stability as mythical Dokkaebi deities pass through the building, a heavy rain and wind blow through its cavities, and the group, in a revolutionary moment, overthrows and dismantles the prevailing order. Jane Jin Kaisen’s interdisciplinary work not only activates Jeju’s violent history as a site of oppression and rebellion, but is a work with universal power.
