Camino de Far East Siberia

A new work from Jeong Jin-sae, the winner of the 2021 Baeksang Arts Awards Best Short Play 

Director Jeong Jin-sae previously received spotlight for the ingenious and tightly-structured production of 2021 University Academic Proficiency Test Integrated Social Exploration Area. This time, he has collaborated with the National Theater Company of Korea and the Asia Culture Center. Two researchers at the Korea Meteorological Agency keep an eye on a pilgrim both online and offline. In the meantime, a host of game users join the pilgrimage. Seamlessly moving between reality and the virtual world, the story suggests and imagines new possibilities for the future as we navigate through the online era. 

“The nameless one has created a new world.”

“He is following the Camino de Santiago backwards.”

The nameless one travels across Siberia in the reverse direction of the Camino de Santiago. “He” follows the Kolyma Highway towards Magadan, a port city in northern Russia, located in the northeast corner of the Eurasian continent. Two researchers at the Korea Meteorological Agency, “AA” and “BB”, monitor and track him using satellite images, and there are “game users” watching him the whole time. What’s the story of the one who steadfastly trudges through the harsh environment of Siberia? 

The two researchers fill the gaps in his travel story!
What is real and what is imaginary?

SYNOPSIS

In the satellite analysis radar room of a climate probe in the Sea of Okhotsk, two meteorological exploration system researchers, AA and BB, come across a person walking in the opposite direction from the ending line of the Camino de Santiago. In other words, he is going eastward rather than westward. They soon realize that he is walking in the reverse direction online, too, but nobody can figure out the reason why he keeps walking, or where he is headed. Next, countless online users join the backward pilgrimage through virtual reality. Who is he, and why is he going in the reverse direction?