Daily Life

Women, Chinese, Performers

Program:

Sunday
7 p.m. HE CHENGYAO, No Title, performance/entrance every 10 min by booking
7 p.m. XIAO LU, What is Love?, performance/one person at the time
Monday:
6 p.m. KO SIULAN, Poetest, durational performance in public space, starting in front of the Old Power Station - SMEEL
7 p.m. LIU LUSHAN, Daily Life, performance/entrance every 10-15 min by booking
9 p.m. BÉRÉNICE ANGREMY, Contemporary Chinese Performance, lecture

The performance program Women, Chinese, Performers introduces the works of four Chinese women who come from different generations and backgrounds in China. In the performances that they will present on their European tour, at City of Women in Ljubljana and at La Bellone in Brussels, these artists explore issues such as identity, gender, body, political conflict, and personal story; and each of them works with a specific language and medium: imagery, poetry, body extremity, installation, and interaction. Witnesses to the tremendous turmoil, changes, and economic dreams and reality that China has been undergoing for more than 20 years, these artists also often reflect in a personal way the position of being woman and artist in China.
Xiao Lu, whom historical documents record as the first Chinese woman performer ever, usually does performances that are confounded with her intimate life. What is Love will question in a spontaneous way the relationship between the artist and her audience. No one can yet answer this question, and you will be the one who will discuss, express, reveal, or hide. He Chengyao, well known for her subtle and sensitive poetic performances, invites the members of the audience to interact with her in a special arrangement that is intended to reflect their own inner feelings.
Ko Siulan, who is a performer engaged in social and political issues, always manages to create an esthetic and poetic world. Poetestis a long duration traveling performance in the city and can be understood as an action bordering on protest, propaganda, performance, and everyday life.
Liu Lushan, a Chinese artist who lives in Japan and who deals with new media in order to cross the borders of communication, will use video/visual images as a way to trace her present daily life events as core elements that influence her as a member of the Chinese Diaspora. China Art Performance Platform (CAPP)

Contemporary Chinese Performance
Lecture

It would be difficult to discuss contemporary Chinese experimental art without addressing Live or performance art, a medium closely aligned with the origins of contemporary art in China, whose small but stubborn voice has been present for the last thirty years. The practices of the contemporary arts (painting, installation, video, etc.) had been considered potentially subversive until the end of the 90's, but since then they have been successfully integrated into the socioeconomic order and accepted by the authorities; nevertheless, performance art continues to be tainted by an aura of taboo that has been difficult to shed. Certainly this has to do with the perception of the body, which remains a taboo subject, as well as the ephemeral nature of the medium, which often leaves no trace and is thus difficult to control.

The gesture of Xiao Lu, a woman performer at the China Avant-Garde Exposition in 1989, not only stigmatized the genre, but also again raised the question of women’s creativity in a field dominated by men. Women performers in China were obliged to maintain a level of creativity and combativeness in the art world, which eventually resulted in a new wave of women artists in recent years. Openly and simply, these artists tackle their fundamental problems concerning their identities as women, as artists, and as active members of Chinese society, through language that is at the same time poetic, aggressive, ornate, abstract, and aesthetically refined or personal.

Curated by: China Art Performance Platform (CAPP), Thinking Hands; Production: La Bellone; Co-production: City of Women, Charleroi/Danses; Supported by: Europalia, China; Organization: City of Women; In collaboration with: the Old Power Station - SMEEL; With the help of: the Embassy of the People's Republic of China.