Collaboration between Tony Yap Company (Australia), Theatre Nottle (South Korea) and Surya Kencana (Indonesia) at the Hooyong Performing Arts Centre, Wonju South Korea.

The Buddha My Body – A Palimpsest is an investigation of the processes of attachment, suffering and silence.

The Buddha My Body - A Palimpsest investigates an eastern perspective on corporeal memory – the body with memory and the body without memory. The characters float within memory and wander through their daily lives, wafting in and out between the two.

"Without desire, there is no going and coming. Without going and coming, there is no death and birth. Without death and birth, there is no this world and the other world or the world between them. All the sadness ends at this moment.” – Won Young-Oh

> FORTYFIVEDOWNSTAIRS –– 20-23 August 2009 at 8pm
45 Flinders Lane, Melbourne www.fortyfivedownstairs.com
BOOKINGS: 9662 9966
Tickets: $20 full / $15 concession
4 SHOWS ONLY!

Creating the work, while living together in the converted primary school which is Theatre Nottel's home (Dec 2007) brought an intensity and a deep engagement with each other. The project came about through the connection made between Tony Yap and Mr Won, initially at the Little Asia Creators Meeting in 2004. Each day we met after communal breakfast and cleaning we met in the studio: which was transformed daily by Naomi's visual design from paper and rock. We improvised, scored and discussed (via several languages) what was working and what the language of the work would be. We had trips together to a local, small and beautiful Buddhist temple and Sculpture Park, to Wonju to the chimchilbang (a communal bath house with saunas, hot baths, and plenty of families), to the Korean BBQ restaurant complete with karaoke, to Seoul to visit the Arko Theatre where we will perform in 2008. This was a deep experience of creation: intercultural, and interdisciplinary- with the centre of the focus being the ability of the artists involved to create from their imaginations.

Performances in 2008 (Novenber & December) & 2009
> Banjarmili Dance Studio, Jogyakarta, Indonesia 13 Nov 08
> ARKO Theatre , Seoul, South Korea 11-14 Dec 08.

ARTISTS: Tony Yap Company (tyc) comprising choreographer/dancer Tony Yap, composers/musicians Madeleine Flynn and Tim Humphrey, and visual artist Naomi Ota spent several weeks in Munmak, Sth Korea in December 2008 working on a creative development with the Hooyong Performing Arts Centre Resident Company, Theatre Nottle and Indonesian dancer Agung Gunawan of Paguyuban Seni Surya Kencana. The project is directed by Young-Oh Won, with playwright Hyun Woo Kim and performers Dae-Gun Kim, So-Young Lim and Jee-Hyun Lee.