bela

Bela is a South Korean sound and performance artist, originally from Paju, based in Berlin since 2022. Her work fuses pungmul, the Korean folk drumming and dance tradition, with vocal techniques drawn from extreme metal, staging what she describes as a ritual for queer rage and grief carried by sub-heavy distortion and cries. She has performed at Berghain, Trauma Bar und Kino, CTM Festival, Unsound Kraków, Rewire, transmediale and Cafe OTO, and co-runs the event series Sorrow Club. A 2023-24 participant in the SHAPE+ platform and recipient of a Musicboard Berlin scholarship, she is developing an audiovisual performance toward a debut LP.