From July 8th to July 31th at 15:40 PM/ Avignon Off 2011
Théâtre de la condition des soies 13 rue de la croix – 84000 Avignon/ Tel : 04 32 74 16 49
The Keyman is the latest creation of the Taiwanese Scarecrow Contemporary Dance Company and is based on a true story. The young art director and choreographer, Wen-Jinn Luo, native of Tainan, Taiwan historical capital, wished to present for her second coming to Avignon an entertaining dance performance. However, while she was working with another Taiwanese dancer, the latter suddenly made a nerves break down. The dancer has become unrecognizable: her mental state, weakened by a painful past, abruptly changed her behavior. Wen-Jinn learned later the reasons; upset and shocked by the revelations of the dancer – suffering throughout her youth of verbal violence from her family-, she decided to question the Taiwanese education and the apparently normal relationships in a traditional Taiwanese family. She focuses her attention on the hidden face of these relations and on the dark side of each member constituting a Taiwanese family.
Inspired by a sentence extracted from Kafka’s diary (August 21st , 1913), “now I am at home surrounded by the dearest and most lovable family members, but I feel more stranger than a stranger”, she wanted to deal with this painful and delicate subject through the medium of contemporary dance. Beyond any realism, she invites the audience to observe, as the keyman she embodies, the daily life of a Taiwanese family: the father, indifferent and childish, refuses to take his paternal responsibilities, trying to escape constantly from the yoke of his wife; the mother, compulsively dedicated to her duty, tries her best to give a good education to her children, submitting them to her will, without showing any love towards them; the sisters hate and love each other at the same time; and the little girl, the main character of this creation, bullied by her parents and sisters, found refuge under the table and in her mind. In her show, she choices to highlight the unselfconfident and unsecure feeling experimented by the young daughter. The latter is a victim of her family insecure and self-doubting mood; each of them is both executioners and victims of the weight of Taiwanese tradition and education. In Taiwanese Family, duty and work replace love.
So, the young choreographer has opted for a sober and minimalist stage design: table and white chairs. The characters wear dark costumes -except in the first scenes: the mother has a shimmering dress and one of the sisters, a yellow one. The lights, oscillating between livid white and deep red colors, and the creaking electronic sounds give a dark atmosphere to the show. All the elements of the creation intended to show out what is behind the appearance of an ordinary family, revealing the dark side of the characters, their disturbing attitude to each other that will push the little girl to feel totally non-existing and inconsistent. There is no need of physical violence; psychological violence alone is enough to annihilate an individual – both his body and soul: that is what condemns this show by presenting characters with lifeless faces. It may tend to prevent the audience to get into empathy with the characters, but it reveals itself to be a clever way to do it: the body expression of the dancers, their repetitive movements ranging crescendo, the figures their bodies draw express this deep and unconscious sorrow and tearing of each character. Each dancer – their execution of the choreography is beautiful and very professional – embody their characters in the very accurate manner. One can only be touched by the story of this little girl, a moving and cruel story, alas so true and so symptomatic of Taiwanese society.
Indeed, the show deals with the Taiwanese need to feel safe showed out by hyperactivity in work and hobbies in everyday life and by a weird commitment in relationships where love becomes secondary as long as the other takes care of us. It reveals a deep fear of expressing their own selves and will; they hide themselves behind exaggerated politeness and measure for everything. This is so deeply rooted inside Taiwanese society and individuals that it leads their apprehension of the world and human relationships. It partly appears to be the consequences of the traditional education in Taiwan but also of Taiwan History as far as Taiwan used to be governed by a military regime, after the 50 years’ Japanese occupation. The regime used to forbid even the teaching of their own language, the Taiwanese, and the people had no rights to express their own view. The show is on this point very relevant and one can regret that it was only presented in Huashan Creative Park and not at the CKS Experimental Theatre.
We advice the audience to have a glance at this creation even if it can puzzle an audience which is not accustomed to contemporary dance and its codes, even if it needs some more emotional violence in the dancing expression and breaks in the rhythm. Nevertheless, there is no need to be an expert to appreciate the quality of the work and understand the purpose of creation and its universal questioning. Indeed, beyond the question of Taiwanese family and society– who is the keyman in the family who can save the little girl?-, it queries human nature and our inner contradictions: who is the keyman who can save ourselves from our inner struggles? In echo to Schopenhauer’s philosophy -“there is no truly secure moment for human being”, the choreographer questions human sub consciousness. Without giving any answer, the show tries to find out some of the reasons – social or intrinsic to human nature- that lead us to these contradictory feelings – fear, uncertainty, loneliness, feeling of no-belonging…-. One can find keys to be aware of and may be overcome these so human contradictions that often lead us to a chaotic way of being and had created a so indifferent and tricky society. The show will tour in the Theatre de la condition des Soies, Avignon, France, from July 8th to July 31th at 15:40 PM. Diane Vandermolina
“Take care” is the first production of TAIPEI BLOOMING, a theatre group founded by Hsu Yen Ling last year: the show will be performed in Guling Avant Garde Theatre from 2011 July 1st to 2011 July 10th. The main question held in this new production deals with abandoned and injured animals through the story of a lesbian couple; one is a veterinary, the other a teacher. It also raises the question of the complexity of the relationships between human beings, human beings and animals, and animals.
Hsu Yen Ling, well known as an over gifted performer, presents her fifth show as art director: “I tried to find a new way to write a script. Before, I was used to write it first and ask my actors to play. For this production, we started from improvisation and wrote the script together; talking about the issues we wanted to focus on, cutting or rewriting some parts.” This collective work is based on the main characters life: the veterinary, the teacher, the business man and the student. She wants to show their relation to their peculiarly jobs and their relationships the one to the other, using a very ordinary talk, classical stage design and everyday life costumes to stick to the reality she wants to portray. “How can we take care of the other?” This is the question lying under the story told by Hsu Yen ling. “I wanted to talk about the animal issue too. In the big cities, many abandoned cats and dogs can’t take care of themselves alone. We have to pay attention to them and take care of them.” This issue leads her to think about animals relationships more based on the touching. “I also ask the actors to play the animals in order to focus more on the touching; work on the emotion, the movement and gesture. We often pay too much attention to the sight or the talk. But there are other senses we can use to have contact we the other and in Taiwan, few people touch each other; Taiwanese are not used to physical contact.“ For example, when we say bye-bye in Taiwan, we never kiss the other on the check. In this show, the animals talk and can be seen as examples that the main characters could follow in their own life, they even advice their masters when they face difficult situations in their everyday life or couple. To embody one of the animals, she asks Fa Tsai to join her production: Fa Tsai, a famous talented artist had already played with the most famous art directors in Taiwan and we can assure you that his performance in this show is really excellent and detailed. Hsu Yen ling, in her art director, work on every detail with her actors, even with the non professional ones such as Liu Nien Yun. This latest used to be Hsu Yen ling producer on ‘Sister Trio’ and ‘a date’, two achieved shows she presented a few years ago in Taiwan.
“When Yenling asks me to be her actress in ‘Take care’, I could not refuse it: I was really interested by the topic and wanted to support her production. I know her since I was in senior high school, before I began to study the women working condition in University: she was our teacher in our theatre club. I also wanted to try to be an actress even I can feel sometimes a little scared. For me, it is difficult to act a relation. But I really want to work more on theatre projects because since I work for the labor organization* I did not have so many times for theatre.” Her role is to be the veterinary and take care of the injured animals and the people who bring them to her office. “When Yen Ling told me the story she wanted to write, I found a connection between my actual job and the character of the veterinary. In my job, I have to take care of the injured laborers –the women who used to work more than 20 years ago for RCE, an American electric company sold to Thompson, and who got cancer after: they are fighting for 10 years to get compensation for their disease. Many questions come in my mind when I am tired: why do I want to be an organizer? My character has the same questioning and feeling.” One could have seen Liu Nien Yun on TV on the morning the legislative yuan passes the budget for the Fourth nuclear plan; she was one the persons thrown out by the policemen in front the legislative yuan. As activist, she is involved in No Nuke movement and Labor protest, yet, deeply implicated in her work, listening to the injured people and helping them the best she can.
So, if you want to know what lies behind TAKE CARE, we recommend you to have a look on the show yet partly presented as a comedy, an ordinary life comedy we should say. DIANE VANDERMOLINA
* Taiwan Association For Victims of Occupational Injuries, based in Shongshan District, Taipei City. www.hurt.org.tw[2]
A Franco-Taiwanese Show for young children (under 3 years old)
By The Company East and West and The Flying Group/Length: 1 h
Part one: The Birth….
Jung Shih Chou, married to a french art director, Franck Dimech, is known in Taiwan for her former collaboration with the Wild Shakespeare sisters’ group. She lives in Marseille, France, for more than four years and with her last show, well named the Birth, she tries to build links between France, her adopted country, and Taiwan, her birth country. Starting a series of fourth shows based on the theme of rest and awakening, the young Taiwanese actress is eager to share her Chinese culture with French audience and vice-versa.
As she is mother of a three years old daughter, her pregnancy leads her to focus on young audience theatre; it also makes her think about the four times that accompanies one’s life. Birth, growth, disease and separation are, in Chinese beliefs, the essential moments everyone faces in his life. Jung Shih imbued with her maternal culture – according to tradition, the birth is considered as a miracle and life does not stop at the Death – collaborates for the first time with the Theater Massalia in Marseille.
However, her creation is an international cooperation between a French artist, Ghislaine Herbera, a Taiwanese artist, Jade Shih and herself, a Taiwanese artist living in France, in order to confront the different looks worn by East and West on the same topic. What is birth? What are our origins, our cultures? ‘We don’t have to forget where we come from and go towards ourselves…’- she says.
‘I have been inspired by myths and legends about the Birth, from Asian and European traditions such as whaling, egg, cabbage, giant…In this project, I use shadow puppets’. Shadow puppet is a very old, and still alive, tradition in China and Taiwan. This beautiful small island, located near the South East of China, has an impressive number of puppet companies. In Taipei, the Capital, one can visit puppetry museums including the famous Lin Liu Hsin Puppet Theatre Museum, based in the heart of the city, near Dinhua St. Market, well-known for its Chinese new year’s goods…
This creation will be followed in 2012 by Growth and Disease then Separation in 2013. We advise you to come and discover this first opus of an original and surprising creation aimed to design a bridge between Two Main Cultures, in Taipei City (Taiwan) from the 18th to the 20th Feb 2011. DVDM
By Katherine H. Chou Inspired from Li Yu’s Silent Opera Performed in Chinese with English subtitles
29-31th JULY 2010 at 19:30
Except Sunday at 14:30 and 19:30
At the Metropolitan Hall – Taipei – TAIWAN
Tickets: 500,600,800,1000,1500,2000 NT
This contemporary creation inspired by an ancient text relates the Chinese Nanfeng Fashion in two different times and places.
What’s the Nanfeng Fashion (南風) ?
It was a custom in fashion from Fujian, an area in South-Eastern China in front of Taiwan, where a lot of Taiwanese are originally from. The word Nanfeng (which means wind from south) indicates the homosexual inclination of the Fujian’s inhabitants. Homosexual unions were by the way allowed at these times. In the city of Putian, where a part of the story takes place, Mazu -the Goddess of the Sea- was born. The city became a pilgrimage place for Taiwanese people and believers of Mazu.
So what is this creation telling us?
In a nutshell, it’s about the eternal love between Xu Jifang, a young widower, who is a very cultivated landlord recently returned from China, and You Ruilang, a young poor boy with an incredible beauty. In 1912, they met each other in Putian during Mazu’s celebration, which was exclusively reserved for men. For his old friend Chen Dalong’s despair, Jifang ruined himself in order to marry the young You, who emasculates himself to prove his love and his devotion to his husband and also that he will never leave him for a woman. From jealousy Chen Dalong condemned You to being beat with sticks but, by love, Jifang will take his place and die asking You to “take care of his young son”.
The second part of the story takes place in 1959, during this period in which homosexuality was severely repressed. Ruilang changes his name for Ruinang and migrates to Taiwan. He became a woman and lives, with his cousin who travels all year for business. Ruinang brings up as a mother Jifang’s son, prohibiting him to see other boys to spare him sufferings You knew. Unfortunately the relationship between the young boy Chengxian and Chen Nianzu, who is being discovered to be Dalong’s nephew, is close to the Nanfeng Fashion for Ruinang’s distress. He will be the one to receive the prize of the best mother…
The Art Direction…
Using double-scenography, the director shows the two periods “time-space” of the story, with magnificent drapes or interior scenery, Katherine the director and author of the show, imagined a special representation: in the first part, Lee -the artist who interprets Dalong and his nephew- plays “Nanguan”, and we discover with a lot of sensitivity a homosexual love tending to universality, subtly directed – we have to admit the intelligent choice to give You’s role to a androgynous woman and Jifang’s to a masculine features actor – with love scenes and complicity of a surprising beauty. The aesthetic of this first part is inspired from the traditional and very symbolic gestures, but with a pinch of contemporaneity.
The second part’s direction is more realistic, less aesthetic, but nevertheless a suppleness and a beauty rise from the moves of the actors, inherited from the artistic tradition. Lightness is also there thanks to the cousin, a funny interpreted by Wu Wei Wei, contrasting with the “straighter” interpretation of the conscientious mother by Hsu Yen ling.
All the actors are of a high degree: Yen ling is remarkable for her You’s interpretation – by her walk and also by her voice – excels at playing the joyful mother. Wei Wei is so amusing in his tomboy role: her joy is communicative. Hsu Hua-chien is excellent as a numb in cold lover and a son repressing his homosexuality. Lee Yi-Hsiu, who’s got a beautiful voice, plays admirably. And the others actors are as well.
“He is my wife, he is my mother” is on tour and we highly recommend it to you, because beyond the question of homosexuality more or less well accepted in Taipei nowadays, this creation in “two times-two spaces” raises interrogations about China’s history, its past, its conflicts, its present, its contradictions, with acuity and smartness, without seeming to approach it. Because at the end of the show, which we will not reveal, leaves us with a question which will still be powerful when we are out of the politically correct and the lobbies.
At the ET, on the 23-25 July was presented to the audience two short operas buffa, put on stage by Mark Ross Clark, sung by young lyrical singers.
The first one, composed by Salieri, is named ‘Prima la Musica, Poi la parole’… and has been sung in Italian: it tells the story of a maestro who has to write an opera in four days – a big challenge for him. He seems to have no more inspiration and is mocked by his friend the poet… The scenes between the poet and the maestro are very funny, especially the acting manner of the poet – in a very clown approach. But the other overacts too much the pain of his character in his difficulties to renew his music: even in an Opera Buff style, we can exaggerate the acting, sometimes we have to do it in a more inner fashion.For example, the one who plays the servant, she was really excellent and accurately comic in her imitation of the soprano role, playing different characters from the old one to the youngest or the dying woman… Her voice, more mezzo than soprano, is very pleasant to listen to. As for the soprano, she is fine in her singing and her kidding on the poet is very joyful…
So, even one can notice a lack of acting in the singing of the male characters in the arias or some duets, and be deceived by the stage design imitating a 18th traditional interior – what a pity!–, the singing was high-quality: above all, they truly had a good diction: one could understand all of the words they were singing, something very exceptional in Opera… One could also notice that the pianoforte player had soft and superb playing touch, her music accompanied, like in Mozart or Rossini operas, the recitatives of the singers with cleverness…
The second one, ‘Too Many sopranos’ composed by Edwin Penhorwood, premiered in 2000 – that gave the name to the performance-, mixed opera buff, gospel, music hall and 50-60’s like American comedy…
It tells the story of four dead sopranos. Saint Peter, followed by angel Gabriel, has a mission: make them being less selfish and more open heart, humble, if they wish to go to heaven… As Divas, they firstly refuse to audition but Saint Peter could not choose between them: they have so different beautiful voices from a more mezzo type, Dame Doleful, to a very leggier Soprano, Miss Titmouss, passing by a more gospel voice, Madam Pompous, and a soprano with large tessitura, Jeanette, incarnate by the brilliant and so exquisite Ching Yi Chen, a very promising young soprano. So, he proposes them to go to Hell and gives them some mission for helping the poor man trapped in Hell, poor lost souls, prisoners of the Devil. This initiating trip is the occasion for them to show the kindness lying inside of their selves, meeting various types of male characters – bad men or just ‘has been’ art director obsessed by the photography esthetic of life scenes. Jeanette, the youngest, finds love with a virile man, romantic in his talks, called Nelson Deadly. But as the price for their going to heaven is to sacrifice one of them, the charming, good hearted Jeanette proposes herself…. Until thanks to a go(o)d messenger they are all allowed to go to heaven if they do not sing opera again….
The acting of the four sopranos – very good – shows different kind of divas, from the depressed one specialized in drama to the very young one singing like a bird –one can imagine her in Verdi Operas with her very high voice-, passing by a more warrior one, used to sing some Wagner characters… With very extravagant costumes that suit well to each characters; a long red dress for Dame Doleful, war like costume for Madame Pompous, a very little fan and aerial white dress for Miss Titmous and a very 20’s like one for Jeannette wearing beautiful diamond earrings in a very Marilyn Monroe style, revealing the genuine seduction of the young actress. She is so shinny in her acting and singing…
The stage direction including some very modern elements like the allusion to the Fifa world cup –for example, the costume of Gabriel, and his acting, like a soccer player, or when St Peter, imitating with joy the Christian goal of Heaven, gives him a red carton, scenes that make really laugh the audience- makes fun of any comical situation with a second level humor. So, even some scenes are very first degree like or too kitsch –especially the color of the stage design, in a baroque style and the screenings so renaissance- the art direction of the sopranos is interesting, especially in the singing fight part. The final scene where they all dance in a very variety style, like in bad music hall comedy, is very ironical, like if the art director wanted to mock both Opera Seria (with their unhappy ending) and modern comedy (especially, with their so bad choreography)…
To really appreciate the show, we have to take it in a second degree, not in the very first degree and so Taiwanese like jokes – like the character of Gabriel too much overplayed-, because the singing is really good and all the singers seemed to really have great fun in performing. We can applause the performance of Miss CHEN and the pianist touch, impressive… A mere grotesque divertimiento that can be bad considered by the opera purists or the tenants of the good taste. DVDM
Directed by Cho Li Produced by Yeh Jufeng With Ning Chang (the photographer), Zhu Zhi Ying (the writer), Wen Sheng Hao (the husband), Chou Heng Yin (the lover) and Michelle Krusiec (the wife) An Ocean Deep Films production Released in DVD the 16th July 2010
Mystified truth in Taipei City…
Zoom Hunting deals with the question of the real truth in a fascinating and labyrinthine ‘huit clos’: the main topic focuses on the relationship between two sisters, one is a fashion photographer who took by accident a picture of a cheating couple making Love, the other is a writer who lost her inspiration after an accident which made her unable to get children. It tells with acuteness and sensibility how a little event occurring in our daily life can disturb us and lead us to an incredible and terrible truth, the inner and fellows’ one…. Even the trailer focuses more on the cheating couple, sex and peeping – peeping is the mother of creativity says the youngest sister, the naïve and questioning Ruyi incarnate in a vivid and spirited mood by Ning Chang- the real topic of the movie is the perverse and influenced relationship existing between two sisters, the lies and non sayings between them, the hidden dirty secret kept by the older sister.
Directed like a thriller – some people may compare the movie making with American movies in its shortcuts, fast scenes and overviews like the last image of the movie… which let us perplex: did something arrive really in this too quiet area downtown? Was it a dream? – the audience fall into a labyrinth of events tracking very fast until the appearance of a beginning of truth during Ruyi’s investigation, the discovery of the cheating woman life with her kid and husband – embodied with easiness and sensuality by Miss Chou- , the existence of the official Wife played by Ms Krusiec, whom acting without any word is frightening of authenticity, specially the anger she showed to her cheating husband. The actress playing the older sister shows the deep duality of the writer who faces a block: in her gesture and face, one can see the complexity of her character, a very difficult one to incarnate because she had both to hide her inner feelings and show out a subtle self perversion in a very sensitive acting.DVDM
Interview: Cho Li, an implicated art director
Cho Li who used to be more a producer than a movie director explain us that if she decided to do this movie, it was because of the topic: she wanted to talk about realities of modern life, especially about women who are not the main topic in Taiwanese movies unfortunately. The women are often in Taiwanese society divided between their duty due to tradition (marriage, family, children) and their desires due to modernity (living by themselves, following their own will… being a modern female). Many Taiwanese girls are like Miss Chou character’s “new in mind, conservative in action” as Cho Li explains. She did not want to show women as dolls or objects as one can see in many Taiwanese movies.
The major difficulties were to find the financial support and the actors. She knew already Miss Chang, one of the most promising young actresses in Taiwan as she says, and Miss Zhu, a well known actress in Taiwanese movies. For the cheating woman, Miss Chou was recommended by Miss Zhu agent and when she saw her picture and her easiness in the acting, especially for the nude scene, she decided to give her the role: according to Cho Li, “she is born to be an actress”. For the choice of the cheating man, she already knew M. Wen, when he looks more like a street guy – before he becomes famous in TV series- and was really interested in his acting, a very honest one. Finally, she finds Ms Krusiec (the most professional) for the cheated wife and gave her a mute role because “as she lives in the USA, her Chinese is not so good and we wanted to work together on a Taiwanese movie”…
Cho Li, who regrets that there is not so many social drama in Taiwanese movies, makes Ruyi says ‘peeping is the mark of creativity’ as a way for her to mock the industry of Taiwanese movies and herself: “peeping is just a pretext to talk about another thing more psychological because in the environment system if you don’t please the audience, you can’t do what you want: that is a tricky thing, so it is a reason why the trailer focuses more on peeping and sex”. However, “what makes me sad is that people say it is our choice being entertained because we pay money but don’t tell me how to work because critic is easy and I don’t understand why some people say my movie is a copy of American ones, it is an independent film, I did not want to copy any of American movies as ‘blow up’ even both deals with peeping… The tragedy of many Taiwanese movies is that the local market is too limited and the government doesn’t limit Hollywood movies; it is the only country in the world where you can have as many Hollywood films as you want! For example, in one movies theatre, 25 movies come from Hollywood and 5 are non Hollywood ones, including french, foreigner or Taiwanese independent films!!! And 90 percent of Taiwanese audience goes to Hollywood films….”DVDM
A spiritual trip through times, voyage initiatique…
Alex Cheung, inspired by Buddhism, imagined a spiritual show mixing live performances such as traditional drums, musical ballade, acrobatic dance and comic acting including workshop and meditation.
The show talks about 2012 and the tragic prophecy revealed by many prophets who said this year will be apocalyptic… Does it mean that it will be the end of humanity? That is what asks us the show through the story told by a mother to her daughter : the audience can see a scene with buildings fallen into pieces but the arrival of the fish man, incarnate in a very funny way by Alex Cheung, opens our eyes on the possibilities of happier future for human beings… If men can change their way of being and living, they could make a better future comes true… They just have to follow Buddha or a spiritual guide, embodied here by Akash, the master of ceremony, and meditate, concentrate themselves on their own self to reborn peaceful and love full in order to be able to help their fellows, trying to show them the path to peace and love…. From this point of view, every man -who can live old enough and have a good master- can become a Buddha… explained us Alex.
The Show begins with an acrobat playing with fire, an hypnotic performance of his skill, then the audience has to participate to the show, throwing into the fire a symbolic material- little pieces of earth- as if they had to forget their past and reborn again, a kind of catharsis through the fire purifying ourselves… From this very moment, we will learn how human beings could be united and act altogether for a better future, by meditation and faith that can give us the strength to be in peace with ourselves and the world…. It reminds the Tai Chi philosophy: when one practices Tai chi, one needs to focus and concentrate on the Qi, the energy. As Tai chi is a peaceful martial art – the masters never fight like in other martial arts -, the soft and elegant movements of Tai chi allows you to feel more quiet, gentle, good and peaceful inside… liberating bad energies and balancing good ones.
In this show, we are guided by a master of ceremony who shows us how to feel this good energy coming from love by breathing and meditating…. And the audience follows him in the labyrinth of these scenes showing out different suffering beings – the tortured woman or the singing one… The show sounds as an initiation to Buddhism thought and one could feel like a student following his master towards the light… One thing has to be noticed here is that everybody enter completely in the show, enjoying the drum lesson trained by a very good musician whose soft voice contrasts with his rock and roll look- and following the instructions given by Akash… And that is what can be dangerous with this kind of show: by saying so directly things, one can confuse it with propaganda or demagogy. Especially the audience did not have really the choice not to follow the instructions of the master of ceremony…
For my part, I think that this kind of show can be better interesting if the goal of the art direction was no so obvious and directly showed, art is a way to make people questioning themselves about life and being and even one would like the audience to experiment a ritual feeling, it has to be done in a different way, more like at the end of the show, when the audience learned how to play drums in very traditional movements and gestures. But the actors and the audience seemed so fully involved in their faith and shared it with so many love and empathy that one could really be touched by such emotions… whatever is his faith, and it appears more like a gift…
That half performance half workshop show presents how Art is connected with Belief; even I prefer talking about Humanism or Philosophy… Art is an emotional way to express your philosophical questionings, help the others to understand better our world and give them a chance to try and find a way to create a better world, by showing the reality of things. It does not have to give us a complete answer to our questionings; it can just give us the possibility to see a path towards the light and has to give us the choice to follow one or another way, depending on the balance of all things… So even I quite agree with the importance of spirituality in life and the philosophical ideas this creation deals with, I have to admit that I found too religiously oriented… May be because I only believe in humanism and philosophy more than in any kind of religion that tends to make us thinking in one way and does not encourage our own free thinking as philosophy… DVDM
Presented at Huanshan Creative Park, july 2010, Taiwan
Joyce presents until the 8th August at l’Oranger Gallery, based in Chang An East Road, a very surprising and questioning exhibition. Inspired by Balthus, her favorite painter, Dali, Magritte and Picasso, most of surrealist painters, she tries to show in her paintings the ‘schizophrenia’ that lies inside of us, this duality between our animal and human side, the contradictions existing between our mind and heart, soul and body, reason and desires, the antagonism inherent to our ‘double thinking’ to use Pascal words, our social behavior and intimate being, our relationship to our self and to the other… as if we were captive of this inner conflict and can’t transcend it. For example, the painting in which we can see a young girl talking with herself is characteristic of the main topic of her work.
The one with the penguin whose sharp beak make us feel the pain and harm inside the woman lying down can seem troubling to a neophyte, like the one with the girl whom head is so big that we can’t help thinking about Lewis Carroll’s Alice or Tim Burton’s movies. But they show the deep atmosphere of Joyce’s universe: using bright color between yellow, orange and brown, colors of the earth and sun, very soft and appeasing ones, she shows with acuteness the reality of human being. However, she expresses the ‘violence in a quiet and very symbolic way’. A very emotional and sensitive one. I dare say!
As she explains us : ‘the foundation of my work is my family, I paint a lot my father, my sister, myself… and the animals are like mask people wear to hide themselves from the world. They are also projections of their inner side.’ The paintings can give a very puzzling feeling to the spectator who can feel not so easy when he looks at them because of the violence and the hard reality of human relationships which are portrayed. But one can’t stay in front of her paintings without any feelings.
I think the purpose is not a chocking one: Joyce just tries to show out, with humbleness and modesty, the complexity of human being and behaving and she succeeds really in doing so. The exhibition was successful on the opening day and we recommend it to you. Because Joyce, who is also stage designer for theatre shows, had many qualities to become a good painter with her imaginative and spirited paintings.
DVDM
From the 3rd July until the 29th august, L’Oranger Gallery presents YAYOI KUSAMA solo exhibition www.loranger.com[3]
Le Drame de Pan Yu lin, a Chinese ‘avant-garde’ early 20th Century Painter
La peintre Yu lin (in madarin with english subtitles) Playwright: An Chi Wang/Composer: An Chang Chien Conductor: Wing Sie Yip/Stage direction: Juliette Deschamps Musical interpretation by the National Symphony Orchestral With Chu Tai Li (in alternance with Mewas Kin) as Yu lin Hao Jiang Tian (in alternance with Wu Bei Yu Hsi) as Mister Pan Mariolin Xu as Yu Lin Classmate; Chong Boon Liau as principal Liu Jo Pei Weng as the model and Shiau Cheng Kung as the model’s brother Duration: 2H35 (20 minutes intermittence) At the NTCH, Tauwan, Until the 11th July – 19:30 PM except Sunday at 14:30PM
Pan Yu lin (1895-1977), also known under the name of Zhang Yu Lin, as she was a prostitute in a brothel in Shanghai in the early 20TH century then Pan Tzan Hua official’s concubine, was also a famous Chinese painter whose paintings were the object of a vivid controversy between the defenders of traditional Chinese painting and modern Chinese painting. The topic of her paintings was mainly nude women portrayed in magnificent but unbelievable postures. As artist, she expressed the complex inner being of women in a very straight, truthful and sensual stroke blush with bright and red- yellow colors. She chocked the audience with her work, qualified as obscene and vulgar, indecent work, specially her first nude (which leads the model to kill herself, because of the uprightness of a moralist society that made her feel so ashamed) and her painting called ‘the entanglement’ (questioning the place of modern art in traditional Chinese society). As she was rejected by the Chinese society – she was a free thinker as her true beloved lover, Mister Pan, her defender and protector who encouraged her in raising herself as a painter-, she lived most of her life in Paris, France, where she received many awards and recognition prizes, dedicating her whole life to arts.
The Opera, a contemporary one, deals with many subtopics as the place of women in traditional Chinese society – women had to be good wives or prostitutes, they could not live by themselves as nowadays (even the weight of tradition is still influent in Chinese society) and constantly need men care even in the 20’s; the gap existing between society – the pressure of society on people and its refusal for any changes- and artists – leading society towards changes as they have some kind of foresight of the future as visionary prophets; the influence of medias on people’s life showing the paparazzi attitude of many journalists, always looking for sensational stories, and art critic judgment; the human weakness through the character of the virgin suicide model and Mister Pan who prefers at the end the warmness of his sweet home, letting her going back to Paris alone to embrace her destiny as an ’exilée’ in a foreign but friendly country (the final scene shows her as Moïse crossing the river to join the Jews home land in the Bible).
However, it is a lyrical ode to creativity and arts, the power of creation, an elegy dedicated to a marvelous Chinese painter embodied with great talent by the famous soprano, Chi Tai Li on the opening day. Besides her, we could appreciate the profound and hypnotic voice of the charming and elegant (baritone-)bass, Hao Jiang Tian who incarnates with cleverness and sensitivity Yu Lin’s lover. Chong Boon Liau who incarnates Principal Liu – a very amazing character- is a fantastic tenor; the promising and really talented young mezzo soprano, Jo Pei Weng, personifies with grace and beauty the model. Her acting, when she appears in a long red dress (elegant costumes signed by famous Sophie Hong who learned Haute Couture in France), is magnificent (the scene is very poetic); among all the singers, even their singing was really good, she was the one who sang in a more theatrical way.
In the art direction, we could be a little deceived by the acting of the singers: mostly, they sang in front of audience – which is no more in use in France and Europeans countries since Maria Callas’ incarnation of ‘Tosca’ in Puccini’s Opera)-, without playing, just accompanying their voice with their hands. What a pity the stage direction was too smooth (for example, the scene in which Pan joins her in France is too polite even in their kissing). Also, we could not feel, from the depth of her soul, all the starving passion of Yu Lin for painting, especially in her acting (when she cried out her despair after the death of her model who was her soul mate she is too melodramatic or when she sang the heavenly music of Suzhou river, she might put more vividness and intensity in the acting to express fully Yu Lin’s enjoyment) – even her voice is splendid and her moving in some scenes is really good.
At least, some parts of the stage direction are very interesting, especially the ones with the chorus: the group scenes are successful and very well directed and some other scenes are very funny, for example the steamed bun one or the brothel scene (a very delightful one, especially when the three red dressed women sang ‘kun opera’ and ‘Beijing opera’, under the eyes of their owner, very funny with her black long crop, moving her body with sensual provocation). The stage design, with its high double face columns (white and mirror looking, reflecting the lights and characters as if they where the puppets of fate), quite modern, suits the Opera very well and offers the possibilities of video screening. A beautiful video presents Yu Lin’s paintings on the back wall of the stage, illuminated by colorful rainbow like lights. That allows us to know more and appreciate her work. The musical training is without any doubt very precise and ‘hao li ay’.
To conclude, the audience really enjoyed the Opera on the opening day: so many talents, many good ideas, even if the rhythm of the stage direction is a little bit slow in some moments, but the music with its leitmotiv that makes us think at Puccini’s opera (‘Madame Butterfly’ and ‘La Bohème’) mixes with ability and skill traditional Chinese music, especially the strings, and symphonic western music, especially the very ‘vériste’ use of the brass instruments and drums in the more ‘classical’ parts, including French cancan dance and accordion in the French style. We could appreciate also that the leading male role is dedicated to a baritone or bass singer, not in use in Western Opera in which the leading role is always incarnate by a tenor. And we warmly recommend you this World Première at the CKS National Theatre. DVDM
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