Zhi Jin TSAI  蔡之今

1629#3

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Live performance
, 2017-



Supported by the Taiwan Ministry of Culture residency grants and Taiwan Academy.

First presentation: 29 September 2017, 18th Street arts center, Santa Monica, United States.

Duration: 32 minutes


Actors: Zhi Jin Tsai, Florent Thiollier


Assistant director, technical director and dramaturgical consultant: Dan Kwong

In Summer 2017, I created a live performance entitled 1629#3 during a residency at 18th Street Arts Center in Santa Monica, California, USA. The work was inspired by my experience of solitude as a temporary foreign citizen in the sprawling urban landscape of Los Angeles, juxtaposed against the isolation experiences of a female political prisoner during the period of the White Terror dictatorship in Taiwan (1949-1987). The performance starts with a prelude - the duo mandarin poetry reading with french actor/musician Florent Thiollier.

Throughout an effective epistolary narrative, it reveals the tangled facets of a love relationship by the manipulation of a rope.

Using male and female bodies as metaphorical devices, further on I explored the complex colonial history of Taiwan and its relationships with Japan and Mainland China. The time and space of the narration travel between 1950s and 2017, between Taiwan, France and United States.

Communicated in French, English and Mandarin, this work shows my thoughts on the superimposed identities such as woman, artist, expatriate, and taiwanese. It was combined with extensive recorded first person voiceovers, improvised music, singing, projected archival historical footage and diary films.

I also attempted to question the veracity of the documentary approach itself and our assumptions about the practice of presentation and representation.