IT'S SATURDAY NIGHT and celebrations for the Sixth Seoul Fringe Festival has begun in the humid and barbeque-scented streets of the Hong-Ik University district. An outdoor concert is pummelling live, raw rock into the pedestrian precinct 'Street Of Try To Walk' and nearby in a raging hip-hop club, six Hong Kong artists are propping up the bar.
Almost a generation older than the gyrating South Korean youths in their midst, they look marginally out of place, until Kwok Mang-ho, alias the 'Frog King', strides into the mosh-pit. The 57-year-old Hong Kong performance artist starts to sway, then throws his arms up in the air with a poster reading 'Kwok Frog King' bearing down on the bemused dancers.
The artists have just arrived in Seoul, courtesy of the Hong Kong Fringe Club, for their opening group art exhibition. All are professionals who work in a diverse range of media, from the explosive performances of the Frog King to the cheeky ceramics of Caroline Cheng; the video art of Norman Jackson Ford; multi-media works with ink on brush of 'Ching' - alias Wong Sau-ching; installations by Cho Hyun-jae - the Frog King's Korean wife, alias 'The Frog Queen' - and computer art of Young Hay. Their mission is to spark a cross-cultural dialogue with Seoul's artists and audiences at the festival.
The Seoul Fringe is a raw event that was set up as the Seoul Independent Art Festival in 1998 by theatre director Lee Kyu-suk. The 33-year-old explains he started it because of a lack of opportunity for young artists to stage their shows. 'I wanted a festival that was boundless, expressing the whole diversity of thinking,' says this disarmingly humble man, dressed in the same white T-shirt as the mobs of young volunteers who man the 26-day event. 'There was nothing - so I started my own.'
The festival is confined to the Hong-Ik University area, a rapidly growing district of nightclubs, independent clothes shops, coffee shops and music venues.
Within these low-rise buildings and quaint streets the festival is highly visible, with banners on the trees and weekend street festivals. This year there are more than 300 artists, mainly from South Korea, and a string of international shows from Thailand, Singapore, Japan and Hong Kong. The emphasis is on the performing arts, although there is a 50-programme Asian Experimental Film Festival. Lee says this year's priority is to make Asian artists create new works together. 'Asian countries haven't yet had much of an opportunity to learn from each other,' he says. And Hong Kong plays a central role in the evolution of this festival.