It is (the Art of Resistance)

IT IS is an immersive interdisciplinary performance installation piece created by Lumia Shurong Liu, this multifaceted work combines architectural installation, visual projection, choreography and music live performance, it is the art of resistance bringing to life the narrative of millions of silent asylum seekers. The whole performance duration is 55 minutes, including 4 sections.

REALITY   Duration 15 mins
I could never fly far and high, as if tied by an invisible rope, sometimes loose while tight at other times. The reality one saw is one which has been filtered a myriad of times; the path our opinion is voiced is unreasonably confined to petitioning and my every stance of safeguarding rights will be treated as provocation and then inhibition…

DREAM   Duration 20 mins
“To see a world in a grain of sand, /And heaven in a wild flower, /Hold infinity in the palm of your hand, /and eternity in an hour”(William Blake). I dance, nonstop perhaps till I turn to dust, as my nude body draws paintings of call to arms amidst wild storms. I dance, in the name of love, with words of winding streams, tunes to a bright moon, with the company of both, under pure moonlight like leaves fluttering in the wind.

FIGHT  Duration 10 mins
Slow down where possible and speed up where necessary. I command the rainmaker to clear the roads, the wind master to sweep the dust, the lightning as spur and whips and the thunder as rolling wheels. Upward I reach a vast void, and downward I enter an endless boundary; till where I stand on the top of the mountain, I remain faithful to innocence, righteousness, the pursuit of human rights and enlightened love to all beings. I am fearless in the challenge to the authority as I reveal the suffering of the people, and incorruptible against sophisticated egoists’ flattery.

DEATH   Duration 10 mins
I assume that I would ultimately be buried here, and I have already dug a grave beneath the osmanthus tree. Perhaps years later, several unknown birds will hop among bushes of the old plants and the moss all over my grave, fearless as ever. Cool but not cold, alone but not lonely, here I will never be afraid again.

MFA FINAL PROJECT
ARCHITECTURAL INSTALLATION AND DANCE PERFORMANCE
ARCHITECTURAL ASSOCIATION INTERPROFESSIONAL STUDIO
SPATIAL PERFORMANCE AND DESIGN
SUPERVISORS: THEO LORENZ/TANJA SIEMS

Scheme design and concept: Lumia Shurong Liu
Structures: Tim Tilong Fu/James Yufeng Zhai/Lumia Shurong Liu
Music: Remi Panossian/Nicolas Gardel
Video graphics: Emre Önol
Choreography: Lumia Shurong Liu
Costume design and construction: Lumia Shurong Liu/Luisa Pereira Pires/SPECS Oxford
3D masks: Tim Tilong Fu
Dancers: Panayiotis Pavlopoulos/Guo Teng/Julian Nichols/Qin Nan/Rémy Rodriguez/Patricia Rodriguez Laso/Lumia Shurong Liu