2022 Tbilisi Biennale of Stage Design

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Curator: Tan Zeen

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Meet Every Era as It Seeks Us

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“Let’s withdraw and meet the time as it seeks us” comes from a line in Cymbeline by Shakespeare, it was then quoted in the preface of The World of Yesterday an autobiography by Stefan Zweig. The theme of the national exhibition of China ——“Meet every era as it seeks us”, is based on this line with modification. The aim is to share the acknowledgement and judgement of artists toward the complexity of multifaceted and multidimensional challenges in their creative process, in which the strategy and methodology integrated everything, including their responses to the present and history.

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Our exhibiting plan is for each designer to have one suitcase, in which he/she can choose how to exhibit the work. This idea comes from our exhibition theme, and we hope that even under the restriction rules of the pandemic, we can still transport the suitcases with airline checked-in baggage allowance.

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We have prepared this for nearly half a year, considering every possible situation of difficulties to realise our exhibition in the most achievable way.

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However, on the 12th of August, we decided based on the current pandemic rules of China, only six people could arrive at the exhibition site. And then, on the 10th of September, we were informed that only two of us will be able to travel overseas according to the most up-to-date rules. We have fought hard and made our biggest effort, but we still wouldn’t be able to bring all the exhibiting items to the exhibition.

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As a result, we can only work with the maximum baggage allowance of the two team members, using the empty luggage with photographs to present the whole look of the designer’s exhibiting item. This is our last and only option.

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But I would imagine that these empty suitcases, which are unable to arrive, are the truest portrayal of Chinese artists during the era of pandemic and war.

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Therefore, we insist on using empty suitcases to present our work, and hope that the lost value of one single work is exchanged for the documentary value of our exhibition as a whole.