Presentation and Discussion of the Performance-Lecture (untitled) by Kai Tuchmann
Moderator:
Daniel Elam, Assistant Professor, Department of Comparative Literature, HKU
Date: Monday, September 16, 2024
Time: 6:00 pm Hong Kong Time
Venue: Room 436, 4/F, Run Run Shaw Tower
(untitled) is the second of three performance lectures about documents in theatre. With (untitled), Kai Tuchmann moves towards a metaphysics of the documentary. The starting point is Gao Zipeng’s film “Geleshan,” which documents a collective of artists who met in the mountains of Chongqing in 2018 for a durational performance involving the firing of ceramics. Most of the participating artists began this performance by burning documents that were closely linked to personal experiences of illness and despair. Kai Tuchmann was one of the artists depicted in the film. Six years after this meeting in the mountains of Chongqing, Kai revisits this film. Juxtaposing the documented past of “Geleshan” with the present moment of his performance lecture, Kai`s work is asking the question of what lies at the core of documentation? What is it that comes to light beyond the visibility of the surfaces of our bodies and actions?
About Kai Tuchmann
Kai Tuchmann graduated in directing from Hochschule für Schauspielkunst Ernst Busch in Berlin. As a visiting professor at the Central Academy of Drama in Beijing, he helped develop the curriculum for the BA Dramaturgy program there. Kai has also researched the history of dramaturgy as a Fulbright Scholar at the Graduate Center of the City University New York, and in 2024 he has been a curator for the Ludics Seminar at Harvard University. He works as a dramaturg, director and academic. In his internationally shown documentary theater works, Kai has explored the afterlife of the Cultural Revolution in contemporary China, the impact of urbanization on migrant workers in Europe and Asia, and the role of the body in the face of digital technologies. His stagings and dramaturgies were invited, among others, to I Dance Hong Kong, Seoul Marginal Theatre Festival, Zürcher Theaterspektakel, Kunstfest Weimar, Festival d’Automne à Paris, Wuzhen Theatre Festival and documenta-institute. He is the co-translator of Li Yinan`s 当代剧场访谈录 Juchang Performance in Contemporary Chinese Society (1980–2020). His recent publication is the edited volume Postdramatic Dramaturgies – Resonances between Asia and Europe (transcript, 2022).
Credits:
(untitled) is deeply impacted through the works of and conversations with Gao Zipeng, Boris Nikitin, Wu Meng, Yao Bo, and Zhao Chuan.
Photo caption:
Kai Tuchmann in February 2024 during his Performance–Lecture To Wake Up The Archives! at the Alliance Française de Bandung, Indonesia
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