Curator | CHANG I-Wen

Artists |

Akinori GOTO, Anarchy Dance Theatre (HSIEH Chieh-Hua), Capital Ballet Taipei (LEE Shu-Hui), CHEANG Shu-Lea, CHOY Ka-Fai, Emanuel GAT, Kim ALBRECHT, Kulele RULADEN, LIN Hwai-Min, Millicent HODSON, Nicolas KLOTZ x Roméo CASTELLUCCI, Sarah WESTPHAL, SHARE Lab, Stelarc, SU Wei-Chia, SUN Yuan, Wayne MCGREGOR, Xavier LE ROY

“The Rite of Spring” was an iconic work of the avant-garde movement which shocked the dance world in the early 20th century. Choreographed by Vaslav Nijinsky, it integrated Russian folklore with laboring bodies. The piece explored the enigmatic relationship between human and nature, depicting a pagan ritual where a group of elders sitting in a circle commanded a young girl to dance herself to death. “The Rite of Spring” has become one of the most iconic and influential works of dance history. For over a century, countless choreographers have been inspired to recreate their own versions of “The Rite of Spring,” an unfinished journey that has spanned modern humanism’s exploration of the Self, the Others, and the Community over the past hundred years. In 2014, Italian theater director Romeo Castellucci created a “non-human” version of “The Rite of Spring”. Using an automated factory hall absent of dancers as a metaphor, the work shows a future urban scenario with labors operated by machines, similar to present-day Amazon distribution centers, where robots are used to pick up goods and deliveries are carried out by drones. In this human-less performance, the absence of humans creates a unique heterogeneous space. A “state of being” is then prompted by the “that-has-been” of humans, which subsequently opens up thoughts on the technological body in the Digital Age.

With “The Rite of Spring” serving as the inspirational prelude of this exhibition, “Digital Corporeality,” different choreographed versions of “The Rite of Spring” are presented to explore the following four themes on digital corporeality: “Chapter One: Future Body through Critical Lens,” “Chapter Two: Corporeality, Materiality, and the Other,” “Chapter Three: Interpassivity,” “Chapter Four: AI, Big Data, and Digital Bodies.” The exhibition concludes with “AI and Future Choreographies in the 21st Century.” From a human-less theatrical piece to linking AI choreography with a ghost, the opening and the finale correspond with each other, suggesting different ways of considering digital corporeality. This exhibition offers a diversified theoretical and inquisitive foundation for the current pervasive experimentation on digital corporeality.

Website：https://digitalcorporeality.wixsite.com/exhibition

Organizer | Taiwan Culture Industry Association

Co-organizer | Taiwan Contemporary Culture Lab, International MA Program in Cultural & Creative Industries (IMCCI) at Taipei National University of the Arts

Promotion Partner | Taiwan Dance Research Society, Dance Park

Sponsors | National Culture and Arts Foundation, Tung Ho Steel Enterprise Corporation, HIWIN Technologies Corp.