As the lights dimmed, only the candles remained in the hall. In that space—one many people still associate with a high-end wedding venue in Gangnam—mattresses, not chairs, were spread across the room. People took off their shoes and chose seats or lay down anywhere they wished. The performance started with the audience relaxing their body tensions first.
A Performance You Watch While Lying Down, Not Sitting
The Raum Wellness Party, held on the fourth floor of Raum Art Center in the Chamber Hall, ran for two days as an opening celebration program. The series name was “THE LIGHT SOCIETY - Neuro Arts Medi-Therapy: Wellness Series,” and the title of the first session was “Shimmer, Find the Light in My Heart.” This is the first time Raum is presenting “Neuro Arts Medi-Therapy,” which brings together psychological counseling, art therapy, and sound therapy based on neuroscience and meditation.
The way the stage and seating area blur into one another says everything about the nature of the program. The organizers want participants, not spectators, to take part. Kim Ja-hye, director of Raum Art Center, which hosted the event, said the program is built around the question “Who am I?”—a time to look into the body and the brain, and into memories and emotions.
Wake Up the Body First, Then the Mind
The event opened with “Barre” by Olivia Shin. As a global wellness director who has worked across Korea, Bali, Bangkok, and Singapore, she guided participants through movements that, without moving much, gradually loosened parts that had been locked up. Director Kim Ja-hye handled the piano accompaniment herself, setting the pace of breathing, and as people let their bodies move to the music, their shoulders and backs naturally eased.
Singing Bowls Filling the Whole Room
In a relaxed state from the barre, the sound created together by sound meditation expert Choi Sun-hee and director Kim Ja-hye filled the entire Chamber Hall. Choi Sun-hee works as the singing bowl meditation leader at Taldak Taldak Healing Art Center and as an instructor for the top-tier course in wellness meditation at Eulji University. She holds the qualification as an officially certified singing bowl meditation 지도자 (leader) from the Korea Singing Bowl Association. Through the collaboration between director Kim Ja-hye and instructor Choi Sun-hee, harmonious vibrations from the singing bowls filled the space. Even though it’s hard to match notes perfectly because of the handmade nature of the bowls, the heavy sound of a brass singing bowl that hit the seven-note scale precisely showed that it can play a role not just as vibration but as part of the music.
The vibrations traveling down from the high ceiling felt less like sound and more like the density of the air. If you follow the sensation of sound touching your body with your eyes closed, the speed of the thoughts you’ve been holding all day automatically slows down. Participants who were experiencing sound meditation for the first time said the deep, penetrating vibration of the singing bowls was so moving.
The next onstage act was guitarist Jang Ha-eun. She majored in classical guitar at Korea National University of Arts and has performed at Carnegie Hall and on JTBC’s Superband 2. “Eurydice,” heard in the dim hall where only delicate candlelight remained, felt like a dream. Guitar music while lying down didn’t just reach the ears—it settled down together into the back and chest.
A Confession That Took 12 Years for Director Kim Ja-hye
What stayed with people most that day was Director Kim Ja-hye’s story. She has worked as an artist and as CEO of a cultural foundation, delivering messages of peace and healing through art while moving between the U.S. Congress, the UN General Assembly Hall, and Carnegie Hall. During the period when she burned herself out with pride in working for the world, she said she did not realize she would collapse from burnout herself.
The turning point came from adults she respected. After learning that an elderly person over 90 years old and his friends, as well as the pastor and evangelist she had long followed, were all suffering from illnesses of the mind, she said she decided to track down the peace she had found—then find solutions for everyone’s hearts in return. She said, “It took 12 years for it to come out into the world under the name ‘Neuro Arts Medi-Therapy.’”
In the middle of the program, a surprise stage performance followed: a violin duet featuring director Kim Ja-hye and his mother. Her mother’s wish had been for her to spend her life with the piano, but she said she was not happy. After a story about how she rose again from the place where her mind had fallen apart, she played side by side with her mother in matching breathing, and the scene showed clearly what direction this program was aiming for—more convincingly than any explanation.
From a Wedding Hall to a Wellness Hub in Gangnam
Raum Art Center has been known for years as a high-end wedding hall. The scene of that space being filled with mattresses, candlelight, and Neuro Arts Medi-Therapy shows how far the uses of wellness spaces in South Korea can expand. The event also confirmed how suitable a performance venue with good acoustics and high ceilings is for sound meditation.
The program continues at 7 p.m. on Aug. 19 and 20 at the Raum Art Center’s fourth-floor Chamber Hall. Details on how to participate and inquiries can be found through Raum Art Center and the event’s official channels.
