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It is on the occasion of the Artjog contemporary art fair in Yogyakarta that I meet Natasha Tontey. Her latest work, Pest to Power, refers to the manifesto of xenofeminism, to a less capitalist, synthetic and standardized vision of the world. It also evokes the historic meeting of the Bandoung conference in Indonesia, which in 1955, in the middle of the Cold War, brought together all the "non-aligned" countries.



Read my interview (in french) on Usbek & Rica 



"The future will be cockroach! » 



Pest to power takes the form of a video installation, mixing 3D animation and performance to end up with the conception of a world speculating a non-binary, inter-species future, of which the cockroach would be the symbol. Why the cockroach? Because for Natasha Tontey, they are "living fossils": "The future is not only for humans and their descendants, but also for other organisms," explains the artist. Therefore, when we think about the future, we have to think about sustainability. And sustainability can only be achieved if life is not only centred on humans. As the manifesto of xenofeminism says: the future is not only about children, it is also a landscape for non-humans. When we begin to think less anthropocentric, we think more ecological. In other words, the future will be cockroach! »

"Walk with Me" is a participatory work produced by Wei Hsinyen. The work is an experiment in discovering the scenic form of Taipei. The artist walks one-on-one with a participant down paths she used to take in her daily life and paths that evoke personal memories while the person shares their own stories. 

Invited by Wei Hsinyen I am discovering the neighbourhood of her childhood, one of the oldest in Taipei, passing through narrow aisles at the back of the main streets, a very old small market, more industrial areas where we will exchange family secrets. Wei Hsinyen tells me about family pressure and she also tells me stories that might perhaps really happened... We also talk about the pressure of having a child... Please immerge yourself into Taipei' oldest area!

Wei Hsinyen is a Taiwanese artist working in photography, video and performance. Her work explores intimacy through various social, sensory and cultural implications. She received her MFA in studio from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She has presented work in spaces such as the Sun Gallery and Contemporary Art Space in Taiwan, Rich Mix in London, Art Busan in Korea, CoCA Center on Contemporary Art Seattle, EXPO Chicago, Links Hall and Mana Contemporary Chicago. She currently lives and works in Taipei.

www.weihsinyen.com

Ruin, is a PHD student in Gender and Trans identities. She is the co-founder of the Queer Archives in Seoul.at the Korea Queer Archive. Established in 2002, QueerArch started as a personal archive of Chae-yoon Hahn, a prominent activist who was the editor-in-chief of BUDDY (1998-2003), one of the first queer-themed magazines in South Korea. Today, the collection includes not only Hahn’s personal archive, but also over 700 films that were donated from the Seoul Queer Film Festival in 2006.

I met Yang Jing at ISEA 2019 as she attended my "Games as colors on canvas" workshop. She was also a panelist along with Hugh Davies and Kyle Chung on Curating Games in the Asia Pacific Region. I took this opportunity to interview Yang about independant games in Asia, China, Taïwan and Hong Kong. We approached some chinese societal aspects through videogames and adressed questions like education, feminism in a communist country and game addiction.



Yang Jing was born in Urumqi, the capital city of China’s northwest province Xin Jiang. She studies and works in Shanghai, Hong Kong and Germany. Right now she is exploring creative and critical ways of play and gaming in art and social settings.



Yang works in various fields: an academic editor, a journalist of international news desk, a researcher and teacher. In recent years, she begins to learn the art of focus, and narrows her interest in the intersection of game, art, media and research. Her recent adventures is curating Video Game: Cohabitant in Shenzhen International Independent Animation Biennale, managing a game culture critic channel in Initium Media, producing a monthly podcast with creative mind in China and beyond (sponsored by DSL collection)



https://yangjing.world/