rehearsal on screen
in collaboration with Hui Ye
Times Museum Community Art Festival 2020 in Guangzhou (CN) & VBKÖ in Vienna (AT), 2020–2022
Concept & Realisation: Lydia Nsiah & Hui Ye | Online-Blog, LED Screens (text interventions in public spaces in Guangzhou), Online Performance (Dec 29 2020) & Exhibition on March 18–19 2022 at the Austrian Association of Wom*n Artists (VBKÖ) in Vienna | supported by Stadt Wien Kultur
Images above: screenshot of Online Performance, LED Screens in public space in Guangzhou, photo documentation of the exhibition at VBKÖ by Marisel Bongola, 2020–2022
There is no doubt that another world exists parallel to our physical reality –a world displaying itself exclusively on screens, a myriad of electronic viewing and touching surfaces – an endless script for the collective rehearsal of a future of digital togetherness. As part of the Times Museum Community Art Festival “how far away? living our distance“ in Guangzhou (CN) and during the first lockdowns in Vienna the artists Lydia Nsiah and Hui Ye published an online blog, which acted as a starting point for a series of text messages being displayed on LED screens embedded in the daily lives of local residents in different public places around the museum. The artists’ thoughts and research on the longing for and imagination of a city currently being out of reach for both of them were also present on site in the form of an online performance.
At VBKÖ in Vienna the artists showed the documentation of these virtual interactions in a multi-screen installation setting. With this actualization of rehearsal on screen in their resident town the artists invite the visitors to participate on their journey beyond the screen and beyond the physical and virtual spaces in and around Guangzhou and Vienna.