Tracing Embodied Embodied Histories through the Waterways of Tainan
hosted by “Absence Space” in Tainan
14 August - 1 September, 2025
Exploring Personal Embodied Histories, and Devising for Taiwan’s Public Space
Research Framework:
This particular proposal aims to introduce a research framework for a group of artists - ieke Trinks from Rotterdam, The Netherlands; CHEN 陳 GuanYing 冠穎 from Keelung City, Taiwan (R.O.C.), Dagmar I. Glausnitzer-Smith from Braunschweig, Germany, and HO 胡 WeiZen 偉仁, living in the Blue Mountains, Australia, to observe the points in which our embodied histories converge with the history and memory of place, as a means of shifting our performance-devising practices, particularly in public spaces.
Revealed through an increasing awareness of the interactive exchange between the histories residing in our bodies and the psycho-philosophical culture of place, the articulation of experience becoming ‘language’ emerges as an uncompromising commitment. This commitment leads us to interrogate and perhaps deconstruct the beliefs we often take for granted.
Central to this framework is the necessity to engage local artists who have personal ties to the city of Tainan, as our partnership is located at “Absence Space” in Tainan, who acted as our host. These artists’ intimate understanding of places enrich the depth of our inquiry and invigorates the dialogue surrounding our performances, ensuring a more profound resonance with the spaces we, as international artists, are temporarily occupying.
Empirical Objectives:
The research framework invites a dissolution of the conventional separations between process and presentation, allowing for the coexistence of varied approaches and fostering a greater probability for spontaneity. The visitation and interventions in public spaces, buildings, and environments occur alongside parallel, simultaneous performances and installation processes, reflecting on the boundaries of our perceived performance practices while cross-examining the socio-cultural layers embedded within public interactions.
Engaging with local communities and stakeholders is imperative to gather insights and perspectives on the sites to be explored. This can potentially be incorporated into a durational walking journey led by Tainan residents, which deepens the inquiry into place-responsive performative actions. Mediated through personal memories that intersect with collective history, these actions contribute to the development of an expanded performative vocabulary—through the transjective, which arises from the relatedness and co-creation between the observer and the world, and perhaps describes something that transcends the distinction between them.
Synopsis:
By delving into personal histories in connection to the history and memory of place, no matter how new or familiar, we hope to observe an unforeseeable relevance (or better relation), which may uncover different layers of meaning and understanding; revealed through an increasing awareness of our interactive exchange and between the histories residing in our bodies, and the psycho-philosophical culture of place.
Such a shift in perspective lays the groundwork for innovation in our performance-making process, allowing us to re-imagine spatial and compositional boundaries. This could lead to long durational performances that flow seamlessly from public spaces to internal Art Space buildings, creating dialogues that celebrate the organic connectivity between multiple dynamics and individual processes through solos, duets, and trios.
Dagmar’s Comment:
The work negotiates an incomprehensible complexity when surrounded by objects of sensory stimulation, and then the act of assuming intense attention on any one source can often be accomplished only with great difficulty. The preliminary ‘mountain’ as a metaphor is set in the ‘Arbeitsraum’ (workspace), which may be associated with a space in the mind. Here, gathered and collected objects are evaluated. They are like instrument collections in the orchestration of yet unexpected tunes. The infinitesimal focus is a crucial process which tends to present the ambiguity as to where the work begins and ends. It remains purposely unresolved - thus the potential for change and transition continues to take place.
The original concept of this proposal was conceived by WeiZen Ho, with Chinese translation by Faye Chen, 21/03/2025.
Kwan Ying CHEN then integrated this into his writing to seek funding from the Tainan local government; Integrated Concept of Kwan Ying CHEN and WeiZen HO, 30/3/2025
