Draft:Su Wen Chi

Su Wen-Chi (Chinese: 蘇文琪; pinyin: Sū Wén Qí; born 1977) is a Taiwanese performance artist and choreographer who integrates technology into the fields of dance, new media art, and performance. Her works mainly explore the boundaries of human perception and the relationship between the body and digital environments. Rather than focusing on human-centric perspectives, she delves into the realms of civilization and human nature. She beckons the audience to contemplate diverse dimensions of life, fostering a connection between their concentration and the natural world. Her works aim to encourage individuals to engage deeply with various facets and intricate details of existence. Her works continue to inspire and challenge audiences around the world, as she creates a unique space where art and technology meet to redefine the possibilities of performance and expression.

Career
Su Wen-Chi was born in 1977. and developed a passion for dance from a young age. She pursued her undergraduate studies at Fu Jen Catholic University, majoring in French in the Department of Foreign Languages. Following her passion for the arts, she furthered her education at Taipei National University of the Arts, where she earned a master's degree in New Media Arts.

Su returned to dance during her junior year of university. After graduation, she joined Halo Dance Company and was a dancer with Taiwan's Halo Dance Ensemble from 1998 to 2001. In 2002, she relocated to Belgium to join Kobalt Works,  which altered her dance language and style.

In 2005, Su established her dance studio, YiLab,    to explore the intersection of dance and new media arts. She also joined the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), where she was involved in their arts program.

Between 2007 and 2012, Su Wen-Chi participated in international art exchanges and residency programs in France, Germany, Switzerland, Belgium, China, and Taiwan.

Works
Su Wen-Chi attempts to rethink the possibilities of performing arts from the perspective of new media by combining the concepts and forms of new media and performing arts, focusing on the controversy and reflection of contemporary art in the face of the impact of digital technology. Loop Me, ReMove Me, and W.A.V.E 微幅 are the works in which she explores the role of "medium" as a mediator that influences human perception by interacting with the human body.

Starting from Loop Me, one of Su Wen Chi’s most well-known works, she initiated contemplation on the evolving relationship between the body and technology in her works, integrating a substantial amount of technological and new media elements into her series. In addition, Loop Me also presented the impact of science and technology on human existence and a distinctive perspective between the human body and body imagery.

In ReMove Me, a subsequent work of Loop Me, Su posed a fundamental question: Can the human body return to its most primal state? In this context, the "primal state of the body" signified her attempt to imagine how the human body can break free from the influence of new media and perceive itself in the most direct and unmediated way. ReMove Me continued to look for the relationship between body and image in contemporary society and life, showing how sensory experience degenerated and disappeared with the progress of civilization and technology.

In W.A.V.E 微幅 Su Wen-Chi managed to address the intricate experiences of contemporary life by contemplating the image of waves, which encompassed the interplay between nature and artifice, reality and virtuality, time and memory, and sensory experiences. Su presented the image and symbolization of material near-death experience, and the process of transforming the abstract information into symbols

Thank You Movie God (2023)
A film by Su Wen-Chi that delves into the interplay between 3D and 2D filmmaking and coding, challenging traditional cinematic experiences.

Black Hole Museum & Body Browser (2021)
An evolution of the Dancing Gravity project, this experimental performance uses dance, sound, and light to imagine gravity in astronomy. Supported by EMPAC and C-LAB, it has grown into a comprehensive exploration of space and movement.

Anthropic Shadow (2019)
Reflecting on global warming, this piece seeks to bring the environmental crises closer to the public's life experience through performance art.

Infinity Minus One (2018)
A Taishin Arts Award finalist, this performance combines laser technology with ceremonial dance to contemplate the concept of infinity.

Unconditional Love and Fact (2017)
A collaboration with French-based Taiwanese dancer Lin Yi-Fang, exploring the integration of science and human emotion.

W.A.V.E. (2011 & 2014)
Inspired by the Fukushima disaster and urban accidents in Taiwan, this performance captures the unseen dynamics of city life.

Off the Map (2012)
A journey through life's uncertainties, reflecting the continuous movement and search for direction.

ReMove Me (2010)
A sensory experience that juxtaposes virtual imagery with past perceptions, creating a rupture within the individual.

Loop Me (2009)
A performance that questions the role of the body in a digitalized environment, focusing on repetition and processes.

Heroïne (2009)
A performance that examines the essence of art from multiple dimensions, challenging both the performer and the audience.

Style
In a departure from people-oriented thinking, this artistic endeavor delves deep into the realms of civilization and human nature, inviting audiences to reflect on various facets of life and harmonize their concentration with the natural world, and experiencing and reflecting on different aspects and details of life. It represents the seamless fusion of art and science while contemplating the intricate relationship between humanity and technology. This performance art transcends the complexities of intellectual subjects like high-energy physics, the universe, and global warming, transforming them into poetic experiences. It encourages the audience to immerse themselves in the process of understanding these topics. Her creations seek to evoke a moment where time's flow becomes palpable, fostering a heightened sensitivity to nature, a fixed gaze upon the horizon, and an exploration of a universe where time and space take on new dimensions, allowing the world to momentarily decelerate.

Awards
Throughout her career, Su Wen-Chi received several awards and honors. Her early recognition came in the form of the Jury's Special Award from the Taishin Arts Award in 2009. She earned the Outstanding New Media Award in 2012. She was awarded Honorary Mention in Hybrid Arts at the renowned Ars Electronica in 2015, the same year she was declared the Professional Runner Up in Speculative Concepts at the Core 77 Awards.

The following year, in 2016, Su Wen-Chi was the recipient of the Accelerate Taiwan Award, which was accompanied by a residency at CERN. In 2017, she won awards at the World Stage Design Awards, including the Alternative Design Gold Award and a Bronze Award in Sound Design.

Collaboration
At different stages of creation, Su Wen-Chi had invited cross-disciplinary artists to collaborate with her.

Apart from recognizing one another’s creative qualities, they could discover each other’s uniqueness and differences in background, reminding them to respect the different characteristics of other cultures. Achieving equality between different cultures was a balance Su always sought in her cross-cultural collaborations. Su Wen-Chi's collaborative projects included:

"Heroïne" with Arco Renz (2009)
A collaboration between Taiwan’s Su Wen-chi and Belgian choreographer Arco Renz, Heroine was a solo dance piece performed by Su that dwelled on cultural differences as reflected in the performing arts, namely perceptions of time and space in the West and the East.

In "Unconditional Love and Fact," "Infinity Minus One," and "Anthropic Shadow," Su Wen-chi retreated behind the scenes and served as a choreographer and cooperated with dancers. To some extent, she still had to negotiate with dancers to lay out her body's positioning and performance state in the environment according to her physical state.

"Unconditional Love and Fact" with Yi-Fang Lin (2017)
Su Wen-chi was inspired to create Unconditional Love and Fact by her 2016 artistic residency at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), which triggered questions about scientists, research, skepticism, beliefs, and acceptance.

Su created Unconditional Love and Fact with Lin I-fang (林怡芳), a Taiwanese dancer who is based in Montpellier, France.

"Infinity Minus One" (2018)
In addition to the Taiwanese creative team, Indonesian and Japanese artists were also invited to participate in the work, cutting in from the original limbs, shouting, sight imaging, etc., to show the cosmic image in the heart.

"Anthropic Shadow" (2019)
Through cooperation with visual artists Liao Qiyu, Zhang Humming, and sound artists Lai Zongyun and Esteban Fernandez, Su Wen-chi had indeed broadened the audience's eyes on a small stage, opened the span of space and time, and performed with "long time" and "planet surface" (not even the earth) for the scene, which had indeed reached some kind of "non-human center" visually.

Art project collaboration with La Prairie (2021)
La Prairie cooperated with Taiwanese dance artist Su Wen-chi for the first time to start a new dialogue with the dance drama Moving Towards the Horizon. Under the sparkling waves of Miami Beach, she showed the flow of time and seconds, interpreting the staggered encounters of sky and water waves. La Prairie's cooperation with Su Wen-chi this time seemed to be an intuitive meeting of the two hearts. Naturally, it was sincere and from the heart, which was a fusion of artistic beauty and precision science.