GYOPO Diasporic Refractions: Performances

GYOPO Diasporic Refractions: Installations, Symposium, and Performances

June 8, 2025
1–1:40 PM
Walt Disney Concert Hall, Blue Ribbon Garden
151 S. Grand Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90012

Diasporic identity is one that is inherently multiple; at its core is a recognition of difference. GYOPO resists essentialized notions of Korean identity and culture by refracting them through the lens of diaspora and intersectionality. On the occasion of Seoul Festival, GYOPO and LA Phil Insight present a week of video installations at the Walt Disney Concert Hall, a symposium, and an afternoon of performance.

Grounding GYOPO Diasporic Refractions are two works by Seoul-based artists: A Performing by Flash, Afterimage, Velocity, and Noise (2019), an audio-visual installation by siren eun young jung in BP Hall and 커터3 CutterIII (2023), a video installation by Heecheon Kim in the Grand Avenue Lobby. The weekend of programming begins with a symposium co-curated by musician and artist Sasami Ashworth on resistance and creative practice, featuring artist yuniya edi kwon, designer Mindy Seu, singer-songwriter NoSo, and performances by yuniya edi kwon and NoSo.

GYOPO Diasporic Refractions closes with an interactive pre-concert performance showcase, co-curated by artist and GYOPO volunteer Hannah Joo, which includes Ari Osterweis, Sharon Chohi Kim, Hwa Records, and Young Sun Han—all diasporic Korean artists who ignite resistance from the spaces between memory and manifestation, and navigate the nuanced terrains of cultural memory, generational healing, and community building. Audiences are invited to absorb a blend of vocalization, movement, ritual, and procession, culminating in an embodied coalescence of themes in the Walt Disney Concert Hall Blue Ribbon Garden.

Performances

The GYOPO Diasporic Refractions: Pre-Concert Performances offers an immersive experience where honoring historical resilience manifests new possibilities for collective agency and dissent. Diasporic Korean artists and performers Ariel Osterweis, Sharon Chohi Kim, Hwa Records, and Young Sun Han ignite resistance from the spaces between memory and manifestation, navigating the nuanced terrains of cultural memory, generational healing, and community building. Through movement, sound, and bodily presence, diasporic identity is performed as a site of struggle and liberation—a living archive that refracts through embodied practice. This afternoon of performance invites audiences to witness how the active transformation of cultural memory through artistic interventions results in a return to deeply ancient ritual, one that demands collective imagining and building of liberatory futures. This afternoon of performance is part of GYOPO Diasporic Refractions, which explores Korean diasporic experience through various interdisciplinary arts.

HOW TO ATTEND: The pre-concert showcase is open exclusively to those attending the 2PM Seoul Festival concert that day. You must purchase a concert ticket to attend the showcase. Tickets are available for purchase here.

HOW TO GET TO WALT DISNEY CONCERT HALL

Walt Disney Concert Hall is located at 111 South Grand Avenue, Los Angeles CA 90012.

Parking is available directly beneath Walt Disney Concert Hall. Enter on Second Street or Lower Grand Avenue. Please visit the LA Phil Website for costs and hours of operations.

Walt Disney Concert Hall is also accessible by subway: Grand Avenue Arts/Bunker Hall station (Blue, Expo, and Silver Lines) or the Civic Center/Grand Park Metro station (Red and Purple Lines)

LA Phil Insight is generously supported by Linda and David Shaheen.