Ksana II / 剎那 「贰」

2018 Performance

Duration: 210 min

Perform by: Ylva Falk, Beio, Ndoho,  Felix-Florian Todtloff, Igor Dewe, Khng Khan

Faurschou Foundation, Venice

Ksana is an excerpt of a larger 12-hour performance that Tianzhuo Chen is currently developing. The 3-hour performance takes its title from the “900 arisings and ceasings” in each ksana (the shortest unit of time in Buddhist philosophy) as mentioned in the “The Humane King Sutra.” The piece is a semi-improvised experiment in physical performance, differing from the extensive planning behind Chen’s previous theatrical work. The audience may freely move around the installation space as they experience the piece, encountering the symbolic bodies of the half-human, half-god performers. Calm, atmospheric music and piercing metal guitar alternately resonate, creating a fierce shamanic ritual that is almost like a contemporary exorcism. The performers express and confront desires from the viewer’s own hearts, just like the wrathful deity Makahala.