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Body art is radical performance art that uses the artist’s own body to comment visually, sensually and viscerally on identity and to enact the body’s social meanings and expressive possibilities.
Gavin Krastin is a choreographer and performance artist. He
describes himself as “a gay, white, South African of a certain privilege and
class in relation to other bodies.” He suggests that BODY/BAG deals with race
and is intended to “expose and speak to the larger politics that affect us
all.”
The film is a documentary about the life of a female shaman Kim Keum-hwa, who was shunned for being possessed by spirits as a girl and oppressed for following superstitions as an adult. It depicts how she grows to be a great shaman who embraces the pain of all people, and how she comes to be honoured as a national treasure of Korea because of her outstanding artistic talents throughout Korea’s tumultuous history. The film is based on the autobiography “Bidankkob Neom-Se” by Kim Keum-hwa.
Guillermo Gómez-Peña is an artist, writer, activist, radical pedagogue and director of the performance troupe La Pocha Nostra. His work has contributed to debates on diversity and border culture.
Activism is the intervention of an individual or group, using varied tactics, to disrupt and challenge inequality, and create transformation in the social, political, cultural or economic realm.