[Unstagram] The Story of Overseas Adoptees Visiting a Gut Ceremony

On the afternoon of the 22nd, over 100 people including overseas adoptees, their families, and friends gathered at the Folk Theater ‘Pungnyu’ located in the Important Intangible Cultural Heritage Training Hall in Seoul. These individuals from 15 countries including the United States, Canada, Belgium, and Sweden came to watch the gut rituals performed by Korean mansin (shamans). They are artists participating in the overseas adoptee artists’ exhibition ‘Motherland,’ held at the Maru Art Center in Insadong, Jongno-gu, Seoul, until May 2.

Intangible Cultural Heritage No. 82-2, West Coast Baeyeonshin Gut Transmission Educator, Baksun Kim Hye-kyung's Baeyeonshin Gut ⓒ Heo Young-han

The performance was part of the adoptee grand art festival hosted by KADU (Korean Adoptees Diaspora Art & Culture), a group supporting overseas adoptee artists established by photographer Park Chan-ho with the help of local artists. The gut rituals were performed by mansin including Kim Hye-kyung, a designated intangible cultural heritage inheritor of the West Coast Baeyeonshin gut, and Jeong-hee Kim, Il-gu Lee, and Mi-young Lee, who are intangible cultural heritage holders from Jeollanam-do. These mansin, who also appear in Park’s photographs and have close relationships with him, gladly accepted his request to perform and even contributed sponsorship funds.

Jeonnam Intangible Cultural Property No. 52, Sinan Ssikkimgut, performed by Kim Jeonghee, a master shaman. This ritual is meant to soothe the grievances of the deceased as they cross from this world to the afterlife. It was prepared to comfort the spirits of adoptees who left first in a foreign land. Photo by Heo Younghan

Some audience members shed tears at the heartfelt cleansing gut rhythm of Mansin Jeong-hee Kim, which mixed the sorrow and consolation of life and death. Mansin Kim Hye-kyung, who climbed barefoot onto a high installed seesaw blade to bless the happiness of the adoptees, said, “Let’s dance,” and draped a hanbok over them. The audience rushed onto the stage, holding hands and dancing together. It was a wild dance, swaying, jumping, holding hands, and spinning around to the rhythms of the performers’ kkwaenggwari, buk, janggu, and piri. They were moved to tears, soaked in the warmth of their homeland, which had long faded from their memories.

All of this originated from photographer Park Chan-ho’s work capturing traditional Korean culture such as mansin and gut rituals, Korean funerary rites, and temples. During the pandemic, when people’s interactions were cut off, the photographer who published a photo book in the United States held an online conversation with readers.

Among the attendees was James Striker, an adoptee who did not speak Korean and had almost no memories of Korea, yet strangely felt peace and emotion through the photographs. Word spread, and adoptees gathered on his SNS, expressing indescribable emotion and peace upon seeing his photos. Most of them were artists. The adoptees, realizing that this vague longing for their birthplace was what they had been feeling, shared news and contacted each other, wanting to learn more about their homeland depicted in the photographer’s work. Through this connection, the photographer and adoptees exchanged messages and gradually quenched their thirst for Korean traditional culture they had never seen before. Adoptees in similar circumstances suggested gathering once in Korea to talk about their homeland, adoption, and art, and meeting the photographer’s willingness to undertake any project related to photography led them to come all the way here.

Shaman Kim Hye-kyung is blessing adoptees while standing on a cutting board blade, throwing 'lucky rice.' Photo by Heo Young-han

Mansin and the cast are dressing the audience in hanbok. Photo by Heo Young-han

Shaman Kim Hye-kyung (center in the photo) and the performers are dancing together with the audience members who are adoptees. Photo by Heo Young-han

Performers and adopted audience members are holding hands and dancing around the stage. Photo by Heo Young-han

This year marks the 70th anniversary of overseas adoption. Overseas adoption, which began after the war by sending orphans with nowhere to go abroad, continues to this day. And Korean gut rituals and photographs have gathered overseas adoptees. One adoptee who was dancing said with emotion, “Only now do I feel connected to Korea.”

The exhibition "Motherland" by adoptee artists is being held at Maru Art Center in Insadong, Seoul. ? Heo Young-han

The works contained many traces of the struggle between the homeland Korea and personal identity, as suggested by the titles. Photo by Heo Young-han

Editor's NoteThis is a photographic story that is not instant but thoughtful, considering the before and after of what is seen and what remains in photographs. In this first installment, we present through photos and text the story of a photographer who, while working on Korean traditional culture such as gut rituals and funerary rites, formed a connection with overseas adoptees, held an art festival, and organized a gut ritual performance.