Site-specific performance
Directing, Installation Design
Tempelhof Field, Berlin, Germany
November 2024
In the Gaze: Berlin Memory
In November, I worked with a group of Chinese artists and directed the performance In the Gaze: Berlin Memory (2024). It is a site-specific performance at Tempelhof Field, exploring the experience of Chinese women in Berlin. Addressing themes of invisibility, belonging, and cultural integration, the performance reflects on the absence of the Chinese community, particularly women, in Berlin's collective memory.
The project engaged 20 local Chinese women in three stages. First, I conducted one-to-one interviews, discussing their experiences in Germany and extracting shared desires: to be seen, heard, and liberated from stereotypes of innocence, silence, and vulnerability. Next, a one-day workshop explored ways to express these desires through materials and positioned participants within inflatable installations designed by me and the team to represent invisibility and objectification. Finally, a public performance featured 15 transparent inflatable structures, each transformed by 1-2 performers through acts of personal space-making, shifting from objects of observation to active creators. Audiences were invited to wander through the installations during the performance, witness the performers' stories, and reflect on their own encounters with Chinese women in daily life.
The performance is funded by Berlin's Integrationsfonds and supported by 706 Berlin e.V.
Collaborators:
Tiantian Xie, Programme Director
Yiping Huang, Dramaturg
Yahan Xue, Producer
Peggy Yu, Installation Designer
Chih Wen Tai, Videographer
Jade Cao, Photographer
Performers:
Workshop: