Off the map performs at Kalamata Dance Festival
Kalamata Greece

2015-07-17 author

17.07 | FRI | 20:00 18.07 | SAT | 20:00 ΚALAMATA DANCE ΜΕGΑRΟΝ – STUDIO Length: 60′ Set design by Wu Chi-Tsung Profoundly poetic and of hypnotic beauty, the performance Off the Map creates a space for contemplation in which viewers are invited to get away from their sense of time and reality for a while and get in touch with their inner self. In a setting reminiscent of the immaterial light of dawn and every so often changing into sky, clouds, sea, or night, the female body is moving slowly, precisely and steadily. There is a constant whisper mapping perhaps her inner monologue – probably what motivates her body to go “off the map”. Her body: embodying all the history of Far-Eastern physicality and its characteristic profound spirituality; yet, a contemporary body in a mediated environment. A body vulnerable yet vigorous, incorporating all the fragility of the human in a fluid, ever-changing post-industrial world: a metaphor for the human condition today. Wen-Chi Su belongs to a younger generation of Taiwanese, and broadly Far-Eastern artists, who grew up in a society torn between the pervading influence of tradition and the rapid growth of technology, consequently opening up to the Western way of living. These two contradictory facets are united in her work in a purely organic and poetic way. As dance and technology do. In fact, her own career testifies to that: She studied New Media Art in Taipei and went on to get a PhD in Drama, Theatre and Performance at the University of Roehampton, London. She has been showing her work since 2001 in many countries in the East and West, gradually earning her place in major festivals. In 2005, she founded YiLab, an experimental group of new media and performance artists, her vehicle for creating pieces which explore the relationship between the body and new media, and combine dance and performance with installation art and technology. Concept/Choreography/Dancer: Wen-Chi Su Text: Man-Nung Chou Sound Design: Fu-Jui Wang Stage Design: Chi-Tsung Wu Lighting Design: Jan Maertens Lights Assistant: Po-Hsin Liu, Yi-Chin Chang New Media Technical Associate:…

[PAC] JING SHEN：The act of painting in contemporary China
[米蘭當代美術館] 精神：當代中國的繪畫藝術

2015-07-10 [email protected]

Jing Shen. The act of painting in contemporary China explores – from an innovative point of view – the emergence of themes and methods that are typical of classical Chinese art in the work of twenty artists from three different generations. In Chinese culture, painting holds an exceptional position. One need look no further than the fact that, in China, writing is painting. And vice versa. For artists, critics, curators, collectors and the audience, painting is and has always been a privileged device to reflect on and understand the world and art. It is a means that still gives rise – with well-thought awareness – to broad and deeply meaningful reflections and outcomes. Its influence is such pervasive that it emerges and makes itself visible not only on canvas or paper, but also in installations, performances, sculptures, videos and digital works. Therefore, Jing Shen – The act of painting in contemporary China is not – or not only – an exhibition of paintings, but rather an exhibition on the relationship of painting with other media; on its fundamental role within a cultural universe. The curators’ view on the exhibition – the originality of its approach – entails going beyond the interpretation according to which Chinese contemporary art is a reflection of its Western counterpart – and origin. Jing Shen argues that classical Chinese art – not only painting, but also ceramics and woodblock printing, for instance – already contains the ingredients and nutrients of thoughts, attitudes and shapes that represent the richness of contemporary Chinese art. The dialogue with the West and with other worlds (let us not forget our marginality within the cultural geography of China) enriches this osmosis between the past and the present, this continuity – which is sometimes difficult – but never replaces it.‘Jing Shen’ means ‘awareness of the gesture’, but also ‘inner strength’. It refers to the moment preceding the pictorial act in classical painting – also of Buddhist or Taoist tradition. It is the climax of a preliminary work that occurs before facing the creation of an image. An idea and a practice that emphasise…