Rama House

Rama House on the Cloud

Venue

Time

Exhibition 2019.06.01-06.30

Opening Performance, 2019.06.01 (Sat.) 15:30, 18:30

Tea Time With Me, By Reservation

Closing event, My Youtube List 2019.06.29 (Sat.)19:00

We tell the stories/ we dance/ we answer/ we look back, across the body heritage of history. What is now on display is the evidence of the mixture of traditions and present-day.

CHEN Wu-Kang

“Rama’s House” begins with a well-known Indian Epic “Ramayana” which has spread throughout Southeast Asia. The project started from the cross-cultural, cross-traditional research by the artistic director of HORSE, CHEN Wu-Kang, and Thai choreographer Pichet Klunchun, as the beginning of a three-year project. The two artists walked through the world heritages and studied from the traditional dance masters. In this journey, they have perceived that the extraordinary of the tradition and presentness on lands of each his own. History as such never stops moving forward in the past and in the future.

In 2017, they paced through the monuments and alleys of thousand-years. In 2018, they followed the traditional dance masters of four countries in Southeast Asia. Unveiling the layers of tradition step by step, they are going to present the transformation of tradition through their own experiences nowadays.

In the age of fast-paced world,

we stroll through the traces of history.

lift the arms, stomp out loud

What is the tradition trying to tell us?

PRESS

The field study of Southeastern dance and its work-in-progress showing by CHEN Wu-Kang and Pichet KLUNCHUN put a greater emphasis on the transmission of knowledge through physicality and embodiment. The spectators’ critical thinking is stimulated as a direct result of the empathic movements rather than being channeled by text-based interpretation and explanation. Meanwhile, the two dancers demonstrate a much humbler learning attitude toward the interviewees or respondents in the field research from an equal position. The project and the opening showing provide a possible dialogue in Asian dance between the traditional and the experimental, or the historically engraved and contemporary issues, so as to open up a new exciting dimension for the dance of Taiwan to depart from Europe as an entering to Asia.

CHANG I-Wen