“US, TRANSLUCENT MODELS” is an immersive interactive sound and video performance in which plants are passive protagonists. The performance questions our relationship with plants and the decline of various plant species in the Netherlands
Artist/Art Director: Muxingye Chen
Writer: Menyin Wang / Sanam
Performer: Aurel Violas / Matteo Mazzu / Jia Xia / Rik Van den Heuvel / Sanamika
23-09-2022 Performing at Grand theatre, Groningen, NL
https://www.grandtheatregroningen.nl/en/programma/archief/muxingye-chen-us-translucent-models
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11-10-2022 Performing at “Explore the North Festival”, Leeuwarden, NL
https://explore-the-north.nl/en
The process of urbanization has flattened the diversity of plants, which can be found everywhere in the Netherlands as a product of urban planning, passive and deliberate. They are no longer nature's nature, but are used as decoration, a kind of frame for a painting, an artificiality nature that retains its biology as part of nature, but whose diversity as a whole plant system has been dismantled.
In this performance, plants as symbolic models allude to 'human beings', illustrating when we are in the new system, and trying to build the relationship with it, what we can relay on? Our cultural background? Personal identity? Social standard? Or Sensory information?
The project is not about studying plants as physical objects, but about seeing plants as natural systems in their entirety, and presenting the complex relationships inside out. Sound-image interaction is the method, and the plants represent the conversations between artist and the digital system.
Can humans finally translucence themselves, growing and building at the same time as nature, without knowing its background? The whole performance will provide a parallel relational experience for all, asking questions and allowing participants to think about the answers.
Dandelion
(Written by Menyin Wang)
Windless
Silence
Tooth and Beast
Pain
Bitter herb
Milk is white
What is yellow
that bloom in the day
and close at night
That one rabbit
I remember meeting
once,
twice,
that one rabbit
That’s all
Baby crying
Flute playing
No rhyme, no meter
Highs and lows
Fast and slow
Yet
The time hangs heavy
I just hope that
No before
No after
No Top
No Bottom
No Road
No Shore
No Beginning
No End
No Here
No There
Nothing is
Nothing is not
No Questions
No Answers
No self
No other
Alternating
Searching for
Dispersed
Samsara
Everlasting Life
Fade away
Persian Ivy
(Written by Sanam)
The wild ivy Life-sentenced Forever
To a far unknown land
Ramping Crawling Creeping With the wind
Flows towards the sky With all its roots Fearlessly
No matter if This new sky
Raves its thunders No matter if
This new land Is determined
To hamper its nature Barricade its growth
The wild ivy Continues growing Germinating Sprouting leaves Roots
Branches
The wild ivy
Aims to build new walls In a different world
Different than the one it knows The one it comes from
But keeps crawling Prowling
For trees, walls To lie on
With a desire For a fertile soil A solid ground
The Persian wild ivy Fights its life Continues
Staying green Continues Growing
Artist/Art Director: Muxingye Chen
Writer: Menyin Wang / Sanam
Performer: Aurel Violas / Matteo Mazzu / Jia Xia / Rik Van den Heuvel / Sanamika
23-09-2022 Performing at Grand theatre, Groningen, NL
https://www.grandtheatregroningen.nl/en/programma/archief/muxingye-chen-us-translucent-models
https://explore-the-north.nl/en
In this performance, plants as symbolic models allude to 'human beings', illustrating when we are in the new system, and trying to build the relationship with it, what we can relay on? Our cultural background? Personal identity? Social standard? Or Sensory information?
The project is not about studying plants as physical objects, but about seeing plants as natural systems in their entirety, and presenting the complex relationships inside out. Sound-image interaction is the method, and the plants represent the conversations between artist and the digital system.
Can humans finally translucence themselves, growing and building at the same time as nature, without knowing its background? The whole performance will provide a parallel relational experience for all, asking questions and allowing participants to think about the answers.
Dandelion
(Written by Menyin Wang)
Windless
Silence
Tooth and Beast
Pain
Bitter herb
Milk is white
What is yellow
that bloom in the day
and close at night
That one rabbit
I remember meeting
once,
twice,
that one rabbit
That’s all
Baby crying
Flute playing
No rhyme, no meter
Highs and lows
Fast and slow
Yet
The time hangs heavy
I just hope that
No before
No after
No Top
No Bottom
No Road
No Shore
No Beginning
No End
No Here
No There
Nothing is
Nothing is not
No Questions
No Answers
No self
No other
Alternating
Searching for
Dispersed
Samsara
Everlasting Life
Fade away
Persian Ivy
(Written by Sanam)
The wild ivy Life-sentenced Forever
To a far unknown land
Ramping Crawling Creeping With the wind
Flows towards the sky With all its roots Fearlessly
No matter if This new sky
Raves its thunders No matter if
This new land Is determined
To hamper its nature Barricade its growth
The wild ivy Continues growing Germinating Sprouting leaves Roots
Branches
The wild ivy
Aims to build new walls In a different world
Different than the one it knows The one it comes from
But keeps crawling Prowling
For trees, walls To lie on
With a desire For a fertile soil A solid ground
The Persian wild ivy Fights its life Continues
Staying green Continues Growing