’More Than Human’#1: The Understories
Opening: Thurs 23 Feb 2023, 06:30 pm
Open studio: Wed – Sun, 24 Feb – 19 Mar 2023, 11 am – 07 pm
The front yard of manzi art space & manzi exhibition space
14 Phan Huy Ích & no.2 ngõ Hàng Bún, Ba Đình, Hà Nội
From the organizer:
A fleeting outline scribbled down, that outline of a Story not yet to be fully-formed just awaiting to be unveiled, but rather of the happenings to be encountered and recorded.
Throughout over three weeks, six artists (working in different disciplines: visual arts, performance art, sound & moving images) will collaborate together in a series of “symbiotic experiments”, an open studio simultaneously at two different spaces of manzi:
“A shoe
A ladder
A lightning strike
Malevich
Hydra
The Sound
Hòn non bộ (miniature landscape)”
Provoked by an infinite conundrum about More-Than-Human World, ‘The Understories’ simulates a site-specific staging in which many elements/characters would be involved; they can appear suddenly or quietly withdraw, with unexpected movements and mise en scène:
There is Light and Darkness
Sound and Silence
Natural beings and Man-made Objects
Remembrance of things past
Promise of things that just begin
There are Handcrafts along Machines
The Original and Imitation
Materiality and Dematerialization
Flesh and Spirit
Divine and Earthly
Then Decaying…
Such complex and multivalent ‘entities’ are inextricably woven in the same ‘habitat’, this staging constructs a loose representation of an ECOSYSTEM. For three weeks’ duration, ‘The Understories’ will transform through four ‘Phases’ (or we can call them ‘Rhythms’ as in Biology / ‘Acts’ as in a Play / ‘Chapters’ as in a Story), each lasts for 4 – 5 days. As the time passed, the performance of each artist, their body of works would be gradually formed – adjusted/ sustained- dissipated as if regulated by a general principle that’s comparable to the ’interspecies collaboration / competition’ practice in the natural ecosystem.
We will see, hear, and feel them – the ‘beings’ of ‘The Understories’ breathing, growing, staying alert to their surroundings, responding to stimuli: They do not only interact with each other (like with their neighboring species) but also react with internal factors of the exhibition space (their living conditions), as well as with the audience – external stimuli (or invaders of their environment); not to mention that they also respond to the flow of time.
However, just as a draft script is still open to adaptations and improvisation, ‘The Understories’ has a huge potential for unusual twists and spontaneous turns because conflict is inherent in all forms of systematization, no matter if it’s a natural or social structure. In such unavoidable collisions between the dynamic parts and the static whole, between the free will of individuals and the intrinsic limits of collective action, the Climax (of this whole staging) will emerge.
Then what to be revealed in the aftermath of all those more-than-human experiences: ‘Everything has a Spirit’ (in theory of animalism) or ‘Everything is transient’ (in Buddhism and Taoism). At the end of all these rhythms, what’s to come: A state of rest in the perfect & eternal equilibrium? Or a point of extinction signaling an upcoming phase of post-apocalyptic rebirth?
*During the course of the open studio, there will be a series of various events including film screenings, discussions and artist’s talks.
‘More than human’ #1 is organized by Hanoi Doclab and Manzi with the support of the Prince Claus Fund.
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