Prophecy #1
In some ways, COVID-19 transformed the social and physical nature of human beings, exposing things about ourselves that we were unaware of before: people have become defined by epidemiological words (at the beginning of the pandemic, the news was full of such words) and they were required to internalize a certain physical discipline (wearing masks and gloves are still considered modern "witchcraft" by some), and the socialization of control accelerates as it continues to draw legitimacy from the pandemic situation. The act of surrounding the "audience" with duct tape is like an act of making visible the invisible frame that controls society itself. Online substitution has transformed the reality of face-to-face interactions, as Rubin's vase was eerie in the sense that its first impression of a person was in fact a shadow, and there was only a vase. On the other hand, the situation of people dying one after another in the intensive care unit without being able to see their families raised awareness of the materiality of human beings.
Similarly, this performance’s last scene—a woman with a halo is asleep, connected to a tube in the likes of a religious painting—is an ironic picture in a way, but also rather frighteningly beautiful. The religious body, the magical body, the medical body, the disciplinary body... In this world where various physicalities are intermingled and distorted, I was conscious that the audience would be strongly struck by the sense of what we are in the end, what our bodies are, what our relative others are, and our current society.
This performance also attempted to create a pause in the traditional theater system and draw upon improvisation, which brings performers closer to the audience for a moment. The atmosphere created in the scripted first half was broken, creating an authentic space for everyone to see together. And finally, the visuals were put in order, aimed at the listening and latent sense organs. “In other words. I thought that the so-called theater should be contagious, not communicative ” —Antonin Artaud
「Prophecy #1」by Swimming
・ 2020.11
・ Tokyo : : Goethe-Institut e. V. .Tokyo
・ Performer /Bao Zi/Lan He/Lu San/Xin Liu/PuLaXin Yang/Rei Sinkevich/@Stinzz/Fei Zhang/
・ InstallationGuest artists /Yuan Yin
・ Director / swimming
・ Curator / Yang Fang
・ Make up /Rella
・ Dresser / swimming /Maggot
・ Photo by /Haolin Wang/Keiko Kobayashi/Lu San/Shuo Han/ VannayG /Yuan Yin /Wenxian Li/
・ retouch /swimming
Similarly, this performance’s last scene—a woman with a halo is asleep, connected to a tube in the likes of a religious painting—is an ironic picture in a way, but also rather frighteningly beautiful. The religious body, the magical body, the medical body, the disciplinary body... In this world where various physicalities are intermingled and distorted, I was conscious that the audience would be strongly struck by the sense of what we are in the end, what our bodies are, what our relative others are, and our current society.
This performance also attempted to create a pause in the traditional theater system and draw upon improvisation, which brings performers closer to the audience for a moment. The atmosphere created in the scripted first half was broken, creating an authentic space for everyone to see together. And finally, the visuals were put in order, aimed at the listening and latent sense organs. “In other words. I thought that the so-called theater should be contagious, not communicative ” —Antonin Artaud
「Prophecy #1」by Swimming
・ 2020.11
・ Tokyo : : Goethe-Institut e. V. .Tokyo
・ Performer /Bao Zi/Lan He/Lu San/Xin Liu/PuLaXin Yang/Rei Sinkevich/@Stinzz/Fei Zhang/
・ InstallationGuest artists /Yuan Yin
・ Director / swimming
・ Curator / Yang Fang
・ Make up /Rella
・ Dresser / swimming /Maggot
・ Photo by /Haolin Wang/Keiko Kobayashi/Lu San/Shuo Han/ VannayG /Yuan Yin /Wenxian Li/
・ retouch /swimming
