WEBLINKS
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FACTS
| South Korea has a population of 47,904,370.
South Korea has 2,413 km of coastline.
After WW2, a republic was set up in the southern half of the Korean peninsula while a Communist-style government was installed in the north.
In June 2000, a historic first south-north summit took place between the south's President KIM Dae-jung and the north's leader KIM Chong-il.
In December 2000, President KIM Dae-jung won the Noble Peace Prize for his lifeling committment to democracy and human rights in Asia.
He is the first Korean to win a Nobel Prize.
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 |  | Between 7 - 16 June a performance artist, Kees from Coventry travelled to Incheon near to the capital, Seoul, in South Korea for a clown miming festival.
This coincided with the World Cup 2002. Kees took advantage of the large crowds that were there.
 The fool revelled in it's status of King for a day.
 | 听 | Kees de Groot, performance artist
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He performed a stilt-walking 9ft tall character inspired by the fool from English folklore.
The character mingled amongst the crowds in Incheon and mimicked figures of authority and seriousness with its mischevious behaviour.
Kees met Irish musicians Paul and Glen Elliot from Warwick at Incheon airport, Korea.
They played music on the outside stages. Their traditional Irish music was recieved with great enthusiasm from a fantastic Korean audience. They loved the energy
and pace of the songs and were very fond of the Irish drums (bodhrans).
| 听 |  | Kees on stage in India
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Kees de Groot interviewed by Amy Elias of the 大象传媒 Coventry website, prior to his trip to South Korea.
How did you get into theatre and performance work?
My theatre connection began with the Belgrade Youth Theatre in 1993. I acted in a number of productions including The Other Half
which went to the National Theatre for the BT National Connections competition in 1994. That year I also directed in the BYT Young directors festival.
So did you go to drama school or are you self-taught?
I went to Bretton Hall college and studied BA Hons in acting and graduated in 1998. Since then, I have worked on a number of projects for myself and with other organisations.
These other projects included working as an actor and teacher with Belgrade Blitz education project, directing the BYT production Animal Farm and working with Relate in Coventry schools on a peer mentoring project.
So what have you been up to more recently?
I became interested in mime performance which took my acting work out of the UK for the first in 1998 to Calcutta, India for the International Festival of Non-verbal Art.
I then helped to organise a cultural acting exchange in 1999. Indian mime artist Ashok Chatterjeein came to Coventry to perform and this is when I first peformed the Punch and Judy show.
This performance was then repeated at Coventry's Godiva Festival. It was a self-devised show with masks and puppets which managed to scare some kids!
| 听 |  | Performer Mr. Choi on stage in 2002
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So when did the South Korea connection come into the equation?
The South Korea connection came in September 2000 when I went out there to perform at a clown mime festival.
I found out about the festival through a performer called Mr Choi who I met at the festival in India in 1998.
| 听 |  | One of the Korean mime performers
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So it's quite a small world then in the miming community then?
Well yes and no. The festival last time featured mime artists from Japan, Korea, India, USA and England.
We all keep in touch on email. It's quite a global and cultural affair really.
So it's just pure coincidence that it's on at the same time as the World Cup?
This festival in Incheon just happens to coincide with the World Cup but I will take advantage of the large crowds there.
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