transgression. liquid loft & jin xing dance theatre

Liquid Lounge
Transgressions 1 – parts of the concept

Sets of performing installations re-construct the zones of transgression of the conflicting spheres of gender, communication codes of society, life-design and global as regional borderlines, by mirroring and reflecting the Chinese personality Jin Xing.

For this collaboration, Jin Xing, against the background of her explicit freedom of choice and individuality, having underwent a gender change and being an internationally recognized representative of contemporary arts, whilst facing up with the challenges and restrictions of the performing arts scene in China, represents the all encompassing thread for the central performance.

According to Liquid Loft’s preferred working style this project is in a permanent developing process, evolving out of discussions, next to the constant exchange between both companies, and the invitation of various regional visual artists and designers to take part in a performative discussion. In these side projects, Liquid Loft will work according to the architecture of various spaces in different locations. We are inviting co-producers to a joint process of thinking into and creating formats derived from the performance. These side projects will reach amongst others from installations, solo works, lectures, discussion formats between Jin Xing and regional and local artists.

Taking up the idea of the tableau vivant as a historical thread and the fashion show as a representation of a contemporary theatre of sale, transgressive visual aspects move from the body as clear-cut architecture and the design of its surface, to the contemporary language of comic, grotesque manga figures, to the opulent, sensual shapes and forms of the baroque imagery.
This constant copying and pasting of figures and codes into different contexts refers to the copying of lifestyles from each other, to the “queer” idea of copying oneself from someone into another, the transgression of male and female, representing the ever changing role in society and the everyday personal life design performed by everybody, raising the question of what is real and what is fake, when the human mind is not able to recognize the difference after a multitude of multiplications.

Modular sets of visual and acoustic contexts, create a constant shift and skewness of interchangeable arrangements of dynamics, forms and sound bits, which touches on this confusing moment that enables our own imagination to create something that is yet to come or has maybe never existed other than in the very privateness of our own imagination, created by this conflict of a permanently changing context. This conflict is discussed on the surface of the body or its appearance being manipulated by design, using fashion as a language.

Focusing on the topic of contemporary coding and transformation, the main performance exposes the rapidly changing codes of society, as in design and arts, fashion and lifestyle. With the human body as the surface of expression of an inner state, and the private skin as a representation of the public surface for discussion on social deconstruction, the dancer tempts to extract the different underlying images and personalities of the individual, bringing them into focus, whilst spotlighting the codes of beauty, gender roles and social imagery in contrast to the individual aspects of experiences, stories and insights as narrated by Jin Xing in very private conversations with varying interlocutors.

Driven by human desire to cross borders and dissolve antagonisms, the fragile individual transgresses codes by using a new language, and refilling the empty shapes with meaning.