Chiname

Details:

TAC hosts a research residency by contemporary Chinese multi-disciplinary artists Xiao Ke and Zi Han for their international theatre project CHINAME.

About CHINAME
The Shanghai-based artist duo Xiao Ke and Zi Han attempt to create a temporary contact zone for ‘Chinese’ identity by researching different regions and presenting on-location documentary portraits of common people.

“Our name is given, yet we try to explain who we are.”

How is Chineseness defined? Its significance shifts upon its context, and its impact on contemporary geopolitics is felt on an everyday level. How does the young generation in China perceive Chineseness? What about the diasporic Chinese outside of China? In this entangled web of perceptions, the artists broach the question: ‘What is Chinese—is it an imagined community or is it real?’

 

Lecture Performance

5pm, Sunday 3rd November 2019 in the The Hunting Lodge at Tuggeranong Arts Centre

To introduce CHINAME to Canberra and provide audiences with background on the project so far, Xiao Ke and Zi Han will present a free lecture performance at Tuggeranong Arts Centre. Join them to find out more about the project and how you can be involved.

Free event, register here: https://www.trybooking.com/BETMF

 

One-on-One Meetings

1st-9th November 2019

During their residency, Xiao Ke and Zi Han will be conducting one-on-one interviews with Chinese and Chinese-Australian people living in Canberra. If you are interested in being part of the project, please contact creative producer Aidan Delaney at Aidan.delaney@tuggeranongarts.com or on 02 6293 1443.

About Xiao Ke and Zi Han

After twelve years of dance training and education, Xiao Ke started her own artistic practice while she was studying at Fudan University of Shanghai. She graduated in journalism in 2000 and has been a professional performer and choreographer since then. She has expanded her practice into visual arts and other art forms since 2002, setting up different collectives to pursue her artistic ventures. Zi Han’s professional background lies in photography and audiovisual production, but has since broadened up his artistic horizon to include endeavours in visual and performance arts.
Together, Xiao Ke and Zi Han have produced and directed five stage projects through a strong interdisciplinary process, and have been performing internationally quite regularly since. Their work is resolutely conceptual and often features a clear social—sometimes documentary— dimension, often involving local artists in their projects, and/or taking the projects to the public space. In 2018, they embarked on CHINAME, a three-year research project that will convey them throughout Asia and beyond and will generate various artistic outcomes during the process.

Besides their own artistic practice, Xiao Ke and Zi Han deploy an important ‘artivist’ activity to support the independent performing arts community in China. They have been organising various festivals and artistic events, and have also founded the iPanda network to bring artists together and bridge them to potential partners abroad.