INFO
| Name | Fluid Borders |
| Year | 2018 |
| Start Date | 26 July 2018 |
| End Date | 27 September 2020 |
| Producer(s) | 2018 — Wai Ching Chan, Uya Yifan, Yanxin Zhong, Warren Pringle 2019 — Wai Ching Chan, Uya Yifan, JingCheng Zhao, Yuyi Hu, Ningyi Hu 2020 — Wai Ching Chan, Darryl Chin, Yin-Chi Lee, Uya Yifan |
| Creative Team | Main organisers: 2018 Wai Ching Chan, Uya Yifan, Yanxin Zhong, Warren Pringle 2019 Wai Ching Chan, Uya Yifan, JingCheng Zhao, Yuyi Hu, Ningyi Hu 2020 Wai Ching Chan, Darryl Chin, Yin-Chi Lee, Uya Yifan |
| Artform | Visual arts, Music, Literature |
| City | Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland, Chengdu |
ABOUT
Fluid Borders 流动的边界 was an Asian-led annual art and music festival held in Tāmaki Makaurau from 2018 to 2020. Led by artist Wai Ching Chan, the festival aimed to provide opportunities for creatives from across different disciplines to collaborate.
The first Fluid Borders event was a one-night “mashup art live” performed by Chengdu-based artist 陈镪 Chen Qiang with 13 Tāmaki-based local artists at the Audio Foundation in 2018. It was part of an exhibition project curated by Yanxin Zhong (Chengdu, China) and Warren Pringle (Tāmaki Makaurau), exploring the collision of experimental arts and cultures.
During the night, Chen Qiang used a lapel microphone to capture sound in the space: people’s chatter and footsteps, for example, or his heartbeat mixed together with sounds played with his handmade instrument– an electric wood stick “guitar”. The night continued with local artists and musicians performing and 舞狮 lion dance, screenings featuring works by local artists and an open invitation for everyone to play mahjong. From this collaborative night, Fluid Borders found its shape as the experimental live festival consisting of live music, moving image, painting, poem, performance and installation.
In 2019, Fluid Borders expanded into a month-long festival. This included the exhibition Revisiting Time, a zine workshop Our songs, Our histories by Migrant Zine Collective, and a VR installation common/place by Mairi Gunn.
Themed 21st Century Time Travelling, the closing night of the 2019 festival was the album release party for Wukong The Monkey King 悟空. It took place simultaneously at both the Audio Foundation (Tāmaki Makaurau) and NU SPACE (Chengdu, China), produced by Kristen Ng and virtually connected through a video call projected on the wall.
The 2020 programme RATatouille was named after the year of Rat. The exhibition Far Nearer asked people to rethink connection and community-mindedness by honouring whakawhanaungatanga and manaakitanga. The programme included a visit to Rhiannon Leddra's interactive installation What We Say, Have you ever been with an Asian woman, a workshop hosted by Aiwa Pooamorn and Gemishka Chetty, and an improvisational performance with musicians and movement artists RAD RATS: Sonic Movement Exchange. More than 40 local creatives took part in the 2020 festival.
LINKS
Key works / presentations
2020 — Far Near, Pah Homestead, Tāmaki Makauru Auckland
2019 — 21st Century Time Travelling, Audio Foundation, Tāmaki Makauru Auckland and NU Space, Chengdu, China
2019 — Revisiting Time, Audio Foundation, Tāmaki Makauru Auckland
2018 — Fluid Borders Mashup Art Live 流动的边界 混搭艺术现场, Audio Foundation, Tāmaki Makauru Auckland
