Creative Practice of Butterfly Island and the Use of Synthetic Scenes as a Methodology

Speaker: He Qi-wo

Time: Dec. 14, 13:00 CET, 20:00 Beijing Time

Language: Chinese

Venue: Zoom 686 4710 3798

Two years ago, I organized many online workshops, conferences and live broadcasts in various forms during the time of Covid-19 quaratine. I was then like an island communicating with other islands through the screen, and this kind of communication allowed us to reconnect with each other emotionally, and the islands naturally became an archipelago.

Butterfly Island thus came into being. These islands iterated in their migration from its creation during the epidemic to its post epidemic tours in Hong Kong, Beijing, Macau and Shenzhen. In Hong Kong, it was the island of games, the island of yearning, the island of women workers’ stories, the island of mobility, the island of disappearing, the island of wish making, the island of seduction, the island of angling . It became even grander when the island of paper cuttings and the island of drag queens were added to the show in Beijing. Moreover, in Macau, it forms a butterfly island of individuals, while in Shenzhen, it slowly merges with the urban village and became an island suspended over it. I would like to share this creative process with you, as well as my working method of synthesizing the scenes. Taking Butterfly Island as an example, I will present my experience of constructing specific sites, dynamic switching of viewers and performers, and my practices in cross-cutting areas.

两年前，因为新冠疫情封控，我组织了许多形式各异的线上工作坊、会议以及线上直播。当时的我就像一座孤岛透过屏幕与另外的孤岛们交流，这样的互相倾诉让我们彼此的情感得以重新连接，孤岛也就自然形成了群岛。

《蝴蝶岛》由此而来，从疫情中的创作，至疫后香港、北京、澳门及深圳的巡回演出，蝴蝶群岛也在流徙中不断迭代，由香港产生的游戏的岛屿，向往的岛屿，女工的故事岛，流动的岛屿，会消失的岛屿，许愿的岛屿，诱惑的岛屿，垂钓的岛屿，到北京增加的剪纸的岛屿，变装皇后的岛，而在澳门，它形成了一个人的蝴蝶岛，在深圳，它与城中村慢慢融合，成为了城中村上悬浮的岛屿。我想与大家分享这个创作过程，同时也分享一直以来我的工作方法—合成现场，以蝴蝶岛为例，分享我对于特定场域的建构、观演关系的动态切换，以及交叉领域的一些实践经验。

He Qi-wo, aka ErGao, is a dancer, choreographer, director and curator from Yangjiang, Guangdong. Graduating from the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, he won a full scholarship of Singapore [CP] 3 to do further study in contemporary performing art criticism in 2021. Ever since he founded ErGao Dance Production Group (EGDP) in 2007, his works have constantly seen body as the core of artistic investigation and the primary medium, using diverse strategies to illuminate social and cultural identities, sex, gender and other topics in the mainland in absurd and grave way. His recent works focus on mobility of new urban migrants in Chinese society, and the issues on the public nature of dance. His representative works include Kung Hei Fat Choy series, Disco-Teca, This Is A Chicken Coop, Super Tight, Everyday Dance Movement and so on.

何其沃（二高），广东阳江人，获全额奖学金毕业于香港演艺学院， 2021年获全额奖学金研修新加坡[CP]3亚洲当代表演艺术评论。2007年创立二高表演，其作品一直坚持以身体作为审视焦点和主要介质，以多元的创作方式， 荒诞且严肃地阐释内地社会和文化中身份与性别等诸多现象，近期作品关注内地社会中不断迁徙的新城市移民，以及舞蹈的公共性议题。代表作有《恭喜发财》 系列、《来来舞厅》、《这是一个鸡场》、《超级紧》、《每日动作》等。