Cross-cultural collaboration and scientific research once again form the heart of Taiwanese choreographer Su Wen-chi’s (蘇文琪) latest work, Infinity Minus One (從無止境回首), which will be performed this weekend at the National Experimental Theater in Taipei.
Infinity Minus One, part of the National Theater Concert Hall’s (NTCH) Taiwan International Festival of Arts, is the second installment of Su’s “Rainbow Trilogy” sparked by her month-long residency at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Geneva, Switzerland, in 2016. She won the residency as part of the “ACCELERATE Taiwan | Arts@CERN” program to pair a digital programmer/artist and a choreographer for a dance project that would explore the digital realm and the world of particle physics.
While at CERN, Su was able to observe experiments with a Cloud Chamber, which is a particle detector used to visualize the passage of ionizing radiation.
Photo courtesy of Jean-Lu Tanghe
Part one of Su’s trilogy, After Unconditional Love and Fact (全然的愛與真實), was performed in the Experimental Theater in October last year as part of the NTCH’s Dancing in Autumn series.
For Infinity Minus One, she teamed up with four Indonesians — modern dancer/choregraphers Luluk Ari Prasetyo and Danang Pamungkas, experimental musicians Rully Shabara and Wukir Suryadi of the duo Senyawa — Japanese light designer Ryoya Fudetani and Taiwanese artist Chiu Chao-tsai (邱昭財), videographer Chang Huei-ming (張暉明) and his frequent collaborator, Liao Chi-yu (廖祈羽).
Su, the founder of the YiLab (一當代舞團) troupe, said she was interested in how artists could present the two extremes of scale — a particle and the universe — in human terms and in terms of physical energy. Can one sense infinity or is it simply a feeling of uncertainty?
With those kinds of questions, one can see why Su would have tapped Chiu for the multi-media portion of Infinity Minus One. He used a telescope and a microscope to create extraterrestrial-like installations for his Light‧Scape (光‧景) gallery show last fall.
Su said she also wanted to explore how traditional gestures can be transformed and incorporated into modern artistic concepts.
The show is about an hour long, with no intermission. The TIFA Web site notes that the show includes partial nudity, smoke and loud voices and that latecomers will not be admitted.
■ Experimental Theater (國家戲劇院實驗劇場), 21-1 Zhongshan N Rd, Taipei City (台北市中山南路21-1號) tonight and tomorrow at 7:30pm and tomorrow and Sunday at 2:30pm
■ Tickets are NT$800, available at NTCH box offices, online at www.artsticket.com.tw and at convenience store ticketing kiosks
Cheng Ching-hsiang (鄭青祥) turned a small triangle of concrete jammed between two old shops into a cool little bar called 9dimension. In front of the shop, a steampunk-like structure was welded by himself to serve as a booth where he prepares cocktails. “Yancheng used to be just old people,” he says, “but now young people are coming and creating the New Yancheng.” Around the corner, Yu Hsiu-jao (饒毓琇), opened Tiny Cafe. True to its name, it is the size of a cupboard and serves cold-brewed coffee. “Small shops are so special and have personality,” she says, “people come to Yancheng to find such treasures.” She
In July of 1995, a group of local DJs began posting an event flyer around Taipei. It was cheaply photocopied and nearly all in English, with a hand-drawn map on the back and, on the front, a big red hand print alongside one prominent line of text, “Finally… THE PARTY.” The map led to a remote floodplain in Taipei County (now New Taipei City) just across the Tamsui River from Taipei. The organizers got permission from no one. They just drove up in a blue Taiwanese pickup truck, set up a generator, two speakers, two turntables and a mixer. They
The low voter turnout for the referendum on Aug. 23 shows that many Taiwanese are apathetic about nuclear energy, but there are long-term energy stakes involved that the public needs to grasp Taiwan faces an energy trilemma: soaring AI-driven demand, pressure to cut carbon and reliance on fragile fuel imports. But the nuclear referendum on Aug. 23 showed how little this registered with voters, many of whom neither see the long game nor grasp the stakes. Volunteer referendum worker Vivian Chen (陳薇安) put it bluntly: “I’ve seen many people asking what they’re voting for when they arrive to vote. They cast their vote without even doing any research.” Imagine Taiwanese voters invited to a poker table. The bet looked simple — yes or no — yet most never showed. More than two-thirds of those
Former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) chairwoman Hung Hsiu-chu’s (洪秀柱) attendance at the Chinese Communist Party’s (CPP) “Chinese People’s War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War” parade in Beijing is infuriating, embarrassing and insulting to nearly everyone in Taiwan, and Taiwan’s friends and allies. She is also ripping off bandages and pouring salt into old wounds. In the process she managed to tie both the KMT and the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) into uncomfortable knots. The KMT continues to honor their heroic fighters, who defended China against the invading Japanese Empire, which inflicted unimaginable horrors on the
RSS