The Circuit - A Movement Scenario

About

Artist: Moi Tran

Curator: Nadine Cordial Settele

Live Musician: Yung-Yee Chen

Ensemble: Makiko Aoyama, Iris Chan, Jane Chan, Jenny Logico Cruz, Sung Im Her, Annie Pui Ling Lok, Hazel Lam, HaeYeon Lim, Jodie Judy Lu Ying Chu, Mei Mac, Kumiko Mendl

"In today’s world, understood in terms of multitude politics, of circulations and mobility, a tender desire is stirring to create a new set of relations amongst us, instead of simply being anchored in a context we are turning to anchor on each other."

The Circuit is an improvised, durational movement piece conceptualised by artist Moi Tran, presented by six dancers and a live musician. Coloured floor tape is used to demarcate a six-lane track varying in size, dependent on location. The Circuitous track represents continuum and journey, whilst the action of walking speaks of commonplace, everyday rituals and behaviours that tend to be overlooked. All the dancers are female of East-Asian ethnicity. As they step onto the track in unison, they commit to each other and the action of walking within their chosen lane for the duration of the piece in this collective experience.

Open and intimate, The Circuit manifests a viewing experience of physical and psychological intensity. It encourages the dissolution of borders and evokes an immersive union of artists and viewers - from which the latter can engage, or disengage and re-engage, at any point.

Central to the piece is the question: what defines an East Asian woman in a contemporary context, noting the Asian diaspora has provoked new dialogues pertaining to culture and identity across the globe?

The Circuit can be seen metaphorically as the beginning of a journey, a prologue - charting the territories through which a possible future dialogue on the identity of the East-Asian woman might move, outlining possible boundaries, and proposing routes through the modern flux of shifting and sometimes violently abrading identities, acknowledging both the continuing power of historical narratives and the ultimate impossibility of final destination and closure, by stripping away to reach a state in which identity can be formed anew.