Exhibition

Interactive 국민체조 (National Gymnastic) dance project

The group of artists behind the interactive installation Merging Layers comes from the Academy of Media Arts Cologne (KHM). The starting point of the work is gymnastics and the concept of ‘national gymnastics’ in the Korean context. Gymnastics involves standardised movement sequences that several people perform together with the aim of enhancing physical effects - often promoting a sense of belonging within the group at the same time. Korean ‘national gymnastics’ aims to strengthen a sense of loyalty to the nation and solidarity with one another.

Dance is used in Merging Layers as a contrast to gymnastics, which is based on discipline, as it enables freer and more individualised movements. Here, dance becomes a process through which the self communicates with the world through the body. Depending on the type of dance or the situation, dance sometimes has to conform to the general direction of the group. However, the extent to which individual movements are restricted within this depends more on the norms set by the dancers themselves. Deeply rooted in the culture and physicality of Koreans, national gymnastics is transformed into a form of dance through the bodies of Taiwanese dancers. This dance spreads throughout the exhibition space and is transmitted from body to body, including the bodies of the visitors. Merging Layers traces the trajectories of the movements of all the people in the room.

Visual: Daseul Kang & Hyunju Lee; Sound: erinleehong; Technician & Visual: Michael Guggenbichler; Original Dance Choreography: Ying Yun Chen; Director: Hyunji Seo.

Exclusive test version of the new game

TEMPS D'IMAGES exclusively presents the new gameplay by Choy Ka Fai, which is still in development. In a showing on Sun 19 January, it will be presented by the artist and his team to a live onsite audience. Visitors will also be able to try out a test version of the game in the exhibition.

The year is 2096. On the island of Formosa, where a whole generation forgot how to communicate with the deities, an android shaman with a noble mission is born. Her purpose lies in the rediscovery and deciphering of old wisdom to reestablish the lost connection and to summon the presence of the Third Prince. While roaming the island, her quest for an eons-old mantra that is locked in a time capsule becomes a journey on which she can again reconnect with the spiritual realm. This cinematic game is inspired by the goddess Nezha, in Taiwan lovingly referred to as the androgynous Third Prince whose various incarnations manifest in different contexts within popular entertainment and religious heritage. The Third Prince invites you to imagine the future of world building across the chasm of communism and democracy, shining a light on the everyday political drama, the tensions and the humour in Chinese-Taiwanese relations in the process.

Choy Ka Fai is a Berlin-based artist from Singapore. His multidisciplinary art practice acts at the intersection of dance, media art, and performance. Through research expeditions, pseudoscientific experimentation, and documentary performances, Choy Ka Fai appropriates technology and narratives enabling him to imagine new futures for the human body.Choy Ka Fai’s projects have been presented globally, for example at Tanz im August (Berlin), ImPulsTanz (Vienna), and Kyoto Experiment (Japan). He was a resident Factory Artist at tanzhaus nrw from 2017 to 2019 and at artist house Bethanien in Berlin from 2014 to 2015. Choy Ka Fai graduated in Design Interaction from the Royal College of Art in London/ UK.

Concept, story & direction: Choy Ka Fai; game & visual designer: Brandon Tay; game programming: vladstorm; visual asset manager: Huang Wei-Hsuan; sound design: Betty Apple; mediaturgy: Mi You; motion capture performance: Yurika S. Yamamoto; dramatized gameplay performer (Düsseldorf) (tba); cultural heritage consultation: Sheng Xian Tai Zi Gong, Puli Township, Taiwan; project management: Tammo Walter.

Production: Choy Ka Fai & HAU Hebbel am Ufer; funded by the German Federal Cultural Foundation. The research and development was supported by tanzhaus nrw, Taipei Arts Festival & the Singapore Art Museum.

An installative version of the dance piece Precious Camouflage

Precious Camouflage is a large-scale study on movement and digital technology, inviting you to join reality entanglements and its distortions, to sense alien intimacy and the fine line between observation and surveillance. With Precious Camouflage we challenge the relationship between artistic dance work and intelligent systems as digital agents within a creative fabric. We thrive to understand how systems are trained to interpret human input and gradually try to set up communications between the systems to let them influence our artistic work.

The installation developed from the stage play of the same name “Precious Camouflage”, which premiered at tanzhaus nrw in 2024.

Video animation, 3D sculpture and interactive augmented reality experience

Joelle Schonhoff's work deals with the transience of dance and the attempt to capture the aesthetics of this ephemeral form of performance in space. To this end, various options were designed and practically realised - as video animation, 3D sculpture and as an interactive augmented reality experience. In this way, visitors can experience the movements of a dance session recorded using motion capturing in different ways.

Joelle Schonhoff's work was created as a master's thesis at Düsseldorf University of Applied Sciences under Prof Reinhardt and was co-produced by MIREVI.

VR installation of the stage production Dancing Audience

A series of VR dance films purposely realised for the stage production by fpdc titled Dancing Audience. Within this series, certain videos extend an invitation to the VR watcher to actively participate by physically engaging with the virtual performers. The movements and interactions captured from the virtual reality audience serve as a dynamic stimulus for the live stage performance.

Concept & Choreography: Fabien Prioville