Winner Interview: Orca We Remember, a Poetic Ocean Tribute by Art Farm LK
- Feb 27
- 10 min read
The classical music video Orca We Remember, produced by Art Farm LK and directed by Jaechung KIM, has received the Grand Prize at the Jean-Philippe Rameau International Music Competition 2025 Season 4. The season ran from 26 June 2025 to 26 September 2025, with the official results announced on 16 October 2025. Following this recognition, the internationally collaborative creative team of Orca We Remember—including director Jaechung KIM, cinematographer Kwangheon Uhm, choreographer Candice Salyers, and actor Byeonghee KIM—shared deeper insights into the artistic vision, environmental message, and collaborative process behind the award-winning music video. In the interview below, they reflect on the project’s origins and the creative journey that brought the work to life.
Could you share the creative background of the music video Orca we remember? How did the project come about, and what initially drew you to this work?
Director Jaechung KIM: As South Korean classical artists, we have embraced the ocean as the central theme of our creative work. Through our music, we continuously speak for the "Ocean of Us All." Under the critical theme, "Our Oceans are Dying," the actors, vocalists, and instrumentalists of our production company, ART FARM LK, have joined forces to take action.
As part of the UN Ocean Decade'sArt Programme for Ocean Literacy, we produced the music video titled "Orca, We Remember." We drew profound inspiration from a program hosted by MOKU Art Studio in the United States, which brought together ocean artists from around the world. We were particularly moved by the dialogues between scientists and artists, and the mutual exchange of inspiration with our colleague, visual artist Jakia Fuller, whose work is rooted in whale research.
Influenced by these encounters, we decided to sonify the movements of cetaceans—specifically orcas—and translate them into a cinematic dance performance. Through this process, we recognized that intensive military experiments, weapon testing, and naval exercises in Korea and the Asian region are causing severe distress to the marine ecosystem and whale populations. We created this work with the sincere hope that our music and video will urge humanity to reflect on these critical issues once more.
What inspired the concept of the music video for Orca we remember, and what story or message were you aiming to convey through the visuals in relation to the music?
Director Jaechung KIM : The research papers of marine scientists from numerous countries served as our most vital foundation. While vast portions of the global ocean remain unexplored, the migratory patterns of cetaceans, who traverse the world's waters, are fortunately being actively studied. The primary source of our inspiration was the scientific finding that these migratory paths are being severely disrupted by human activity. The continuous expansion of human travel, cruise tourism, and commercial trade routes inevitably leads to the invasion of cetacean habitats. As humanity utilizes the ocean to advance its industries, countless creatures hidden from sight are struggling on the front lines of survival.
Through this music and video, we sought to speak of peace. We invited American choreographer Candice Salyers, a fellow participant in the UN Ocean Decade Art Programme, to collaborate, and she graciously joined our mission. The Korean waters featured in the video are among the most active areas for military exercises and naval operations in the region. Every scene that appears tranquil in the video actually depicts a location where the lives of marine creatures are under immense duress due to the military movements of various nations.
Choreographer Candice Salyers performed a dance of life and peace in waters where actual nuclear testing had once been conducted in the United States. Since filming live cetaceans in Korean and Asian waters is nearly impossible, KOGIA, a global marine protection and observation organization, granted us full access to their extensive video library. Through this music video, born from international cooperation, we aim to convey that humans are the only creatures capable of protecting the ocean and its inhabitants.
The ocean knows no borders. Our collective actions today are connected to every corner of the Earth through the sea. In the final scene of the video, the performers gaze out at the ocean in quiet contemplation. We leave the depth of their emotions to the interpretation of the audience. It is our hope that everyone will take a moment to reflect on the state of our oceans. Orcas may soon vanish from our memories, disappearing forever into the silence of extinction.
Could you introduce the musicians and performers involved in this music video project, and share how you collaborated with them throughout the creative and production process?
Director Jaechung KIM : This project brought together the entire community of vocalists, instrumentalists, actors, and composers who have shared our operatic stages and musical journeys over the years. Together, we performed a collective dance titled "The Dance of the Whale."Due to a limited budget, we had to complete the filming in an extremely short timeframe, shooting continuously for two days and one night with almost no sleep.
As the director, I pushed for more immersive shots, constantly urging the performers to go deeper into the sea. Many of the insert shots had to be filmed by the cinematographer alone, as it was impossible to bring the entire cast along for the late-night and pre-dawn shoots. I am deeply grateful to everyone who participated with such joy, uniting under our shared vision to reflect on humanity, peace, and the "Ocean of Us All".
Camera Director Kwangheon Uhm : A video artist responsible for the cinematography and editing of Orca We Remember. For this project, I oversaw the visual language of the film — from its overall color palette and compositional structure to the detailed editing process that brought the director’s vision into focus. My primary goal was to allow the emotional core of the music to breathe through the imagery, carefully shaping rhythm, pacing, and visual density so that sound and image could exist in a single, cohesive flow.
How did the filming process unfold, and were there any particularly interesting or challenging moments during the shoot or post-production?
Camera Director Kwangheon Uhm : Korea is a peninsula surrounded by the sea on three sides, and this geographic reality became a fundamental narrative framework for the film. Filming took place across three distinct coastal regions, each carrying its own ecological and symbolic weight: Jeju Island, where whales are most frequently sighted in Korean waters; the East Sea, known for its depth and crystalline clarity; and Taean, a coastline marked by industrial development and recurring environmental trauma.
In Jeju, musicians and performers embody what we call “human whales,” using their bodies to express the pain, endurance, and silent suffering endured by marine life. The East Sea scenes reflect a sense of freedom — not as it exists, but as it should exist — contrasting the natural instinct for boundless movement with the harsh limitations imposed by reality. In Taean, a region scarred by repeated oil spills and slow recovery, we introduced a child as a symbol of the future generation. This choice was meant to remind viewers that the fate of whales is not a distant or abstract issue, but one that is inseparably tied to our own children and the world they will inherit. The child featured in these scenes is my daughter, which allowed the filming process to unfold more naturally, yet the ethical and emotional weight of placing a child within this narrative was something I approached with deep deliberation.
Filming live whales in Korea presents significant practical limitations. To address this, we collaborated with international video artists, incorporating footage that could extend the visual and conceptual scope of the film. In particular, the work of a U.S.-based performance artist — whose movements carry an otherworldly quality — was instrumental in conveying themes of mutation, contamination, and invisible radiation. This collaboration added layers of meaning that could not have been achieved through location shooting alone.
The physical demands placed on the performers were considerable. To convincingly portray “human whales,” they repeatedly submerged themselves underwater for one to two minutes at a time. Water entering their nasal passages often delayed filming, testing both endurance and patience. Additionally, the shoot required an intense schedule, circling Jeju Island multiple times over three days in order to capture each location’s precise emotional tone.
As the film attempts to hold both the image of dying whales and a possible future within the same frame, metaphor became an essential visual tool. This led us to adopt a restrained yet deliberate aesthetic: predominantly monochromatic imagery punctuated by a single, assertive color. Throughout the film, black and red emerge as recurring motifs — black as absence and mourning, red as warning and violence — designed to leave a lasting visual imprint and provoke an instinctive emotional response rather than a purely intellectual one.
Actor Byeonghee KIM : The filming took place on the coast of Jeju Island, continuing from daytime into evening, through the night, and into the early morning and the following day. Although it was June—late spring moving into early summer—the seawater was colder than expected. In this project, I was not present primarily as a singer or performer, but as someone embodying the whale through my body. Rather than explaining or describing it in words, I had to express a dying, groaning whale through physical movement and breath.
I entered the cold water repeatedly during filming, and at times was pushed by the waves, swallowing seawater. My body kept shaking, and honestly, it was very cold. Yet I felt that this discomfort and pain were necessary for the work. It was an experience fundamentally different from expressing emotion on stage—an attempt to approach the suffering of a living being through the body.
What stayed with me most was the time spent in the sea at night and before dawn, surrounded by the sound of waves, the wind, and the natural sounds that required no explanation. It was the first time I had felt nature so fully with my entire body, and in those moments, I felt not like an observer of nature, but as a part of it. It was a mysterious and entirely new experience for me.
Would you like to share your experience participating in our competition and thank anyone？
Actor Byeonghee KIM : For much of my life, my primary focus has been on human stories. Both as a performer and as a pastor, I have centered my attention on human emotions and relationships, on wounds and on healing. However, through this project, my perspective has clearly changed. I came to realize how indifferent I had been toward nature and life—especially toward those beings that cannot speak for themselves and quietly disappear. This work went beyond a simple environmental issue and led me, from a faith-based perspective, to ask again how we view the entirety of God’s creation.
In this process, I was led to reflect deeply on my eschatological faith. Speaking of the end does not mean that everything will soon be over and therefore can be ignored. Rather, precisely because we are moving toward an end, we are called to care for and protect this world with greater responsibility. In this sense, how we treat the created world reveals the authenticity of our faith, and this project made me deeply aware of the weight of the responsibility entrusted to humanity.
I would like to express my sincere gratitude to all the collaborators and production team who shared this journey with me, as well as to everyone who has taken the time to listen to and engage with this work.
Biography
Jaechung KIM (Born in 1976, south korea) studied stage arts at Korea University’s Department of Korean Literature. He debuted in 2009, selected for the Next Generation Artist Support Program by the Korea Arts & Culture Foundation (AYAF), receiving national support from the outset. Every work he has written and directed has been selected as a supported project by prestigious organizations such as the Seoul Foundation for Arts and Culture, Gyeonggi Cultural Foundation, and Chungcheong Province Cultural Foundation.His musical theater piece ECLIPS was selected as the only outstanding domestic work at the National Theater Festival, and his dance film ‘Black Shadow’ won the Excellence Award at the Seongnam International Dance Festival. Kim has written and directed numerous works including the musical theater piece MUNG, contemporary dance piece The Sea Does Not Exist, the plays Red Harbor, Six Rooms, the musical Consolation After 145 Years, the opera Time Cobweb, and the three-part opera Kalea, which have been featured at festivals like the Chuncheon International Mime Festival and Jeju Heavyche Art Festival. As an art director and producer, he was involved in the feature art films Land of Scarecrows, The Last Dining Table, July 32, and Eve's Temptation. These films have been invited to major international film festivals such as Cannes, Berlin, Rotterdam, Sydney, Toronto, and Busan, among the top 10 film festivals in the world.Selected as a resident artist at the Incheon Art Platform, Kim directed performances with renowned groups such as Jeonggaakhoe, Quartetto Su, Kyle Yoon Band, and Lee Chang-seon’s Daegum Band, while continuing the writing and research of Opera Time Spider Web. As the general planner for the Zelkovar Music Festival at Seongnam Arts Center, he directed six large-scale outdoor performances. Kim has been selected as a theme writer for collaborations with the Arko Creative Academy, the National Ecology Institute, and the Toji Culture Foundation, and his works have been performed at prestigious venues such as the IBK Hall of the Seoul Arts Center, the National Theater of Korea, Art Center Incheon, Mapo Art Center, and Daehangno Arts Theater. He gathered fellow classical music artists and participated as the sole Asian artist in the 2025 Artist Action Programme of the UN Ocean Decade. Through international online classical music performances and musical exhibitions in art museums, he has offered a poetic and critical depiction of the current social reality concerning the ocean and humanity. He is currently writing the libretti/scripts for opera and oratorio works centered on the theme of the ocean.
