Su Wen-Chi (Chinese: èÂÂæÂÂçª; pinyin: Sà « Wén QÃÂ; born 1977) is a Taiwanese performance artist and choreographer who integrates technology into the fields of dance, new media art, and performance. Her works explore the boundaries of human perception and the relationship between the body and digital environments. Rather than focusing on human-centric perspectives, she probes into the realms of civilization and human nature. Her works aim to encourage individuals to engage deeply with various facets and intricate details of existence.
Su Wen-Chi was born in 1977 and developed a passion for dance from a young age. She pursued her undergraduate studies at Fu Jen Catholic University, majoring in French in the Department of Foreign Languages. Following her passion for the arts, she furthered her education at Taipei National University of the Arts, where she earned a master's degree in New Media Arts.
Su returned to dance during her junior year of university. After graduation, she joined Halo Dance Company and was a dancer with Taiwan's Halo Dance Ensemble from 1998 to 2001. In 2002, she relocated to Belgium to join Kobalt Works, which altered her dance language and style.
In 2005, Su established her dance studio, YiLab, to explore the intersection of dance and new media arts. She also joined the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), where she was involved in their arts program.
Su Wen-Chi attempts to rethink the possibilities of performing arts from the perspective of new media by combining the concepts and forms of new media and performing arts, focusing on the controversy and reflection of contemporary art in the face of the impact of digital technology. Loop Me, ReMove Me, and W.A.V.E 微幠are the works in which she explores the role of "medium" as a mediator that influences human perception by interacting with the human body.
Starting from Loop Me, she initiated contemplation on the evolving relationship between the body and technology in her works, integrating a substantial amount of technological and new media elements into her series. In addition, Loop Me presented the impact of science and technology on human existence and a distinctive perspective between the human body and body imagery.
In ReMove Me, a subsequent work of Loop Me, Su posed a fundamental question: Can the human body return to its most primal state? In this context, the "primal state of the body" signified the attempt to imagine how the human body can break free from the influence of new media and perceive itself in the most direct and unmediated way. ReMove Me continued to look for the relationship between body and image in contemporary society and life, showing how sensory experience degenerated and disappeared with the progress of civilization and technology.
In W.A.V.E 微幠, Su managed to address the intricate experiences of contemporary life by contemplating the image of waves, which encompassed the interplay between nature and artifice, reality and virtuality, time and memory, and sensory experiences. Su presented the image and symbolization of material near-death experience, and the process of transforming the abstract information into symbols
In a departure from people-oriented thinking, this artistic endeavor delves deep into the realms of civilization and human nature, inviting audiences to reflect on various facets of life and harmonize their concentration with the natural world, and experiencing and reflecting on different aspects and details of life. It represents the seamless fusion of art and science while contemplating the intricate relationship between humanity and technology. This performance art transcends the complexities of intellectual subjects like high-energy physics, the universe, and global warming, transforming them into poetic experiences. It encourages the audience to immerse themselves in the process of understanding these topics. Her creations seek to evoke a moment where time's flow becomes palpable, fostering a heightened sensitivity to nature, a fixed gaze upon the horizon, and an exploration of a universe where time and space take on new dimensions, allowing the world to momentarily decelerate.
Throughout her career, Su Wen-Chi received local awards and honors. Her early recognition came in the form of the Jury's Special Award from the Taishin Arts Award in 2009. She earned the Outstanding New Media Award in 2012. In 2016, Su Wen-Chi was the recipient of the Accelerate Taiwan Award, which was accompanied by a residency at CERN. In 2017, she won awards at the World Stage Design Awards, including the Alternative Design Gold Award and a Bronze Award in Sound Design.
Su Wen-Chi had invited cross-disciplinary artists to collaborate with her. Apart from recognizing one anotherâÂÂs creative qualities, they could discover each otherâÂÂs uniqueness and differences in background, reminding them to respect the different characteristics of other cultures. Achieving equality between different cultures was a balance Su always sought in her cross-cultural collaborations. Su Wen-Chi's collaborative projects included:
A collaboration between TaiwanâÂÂs Su Wen-chi and Belgian choreographer Arco Renz, Heroine was a solo dance piece performed by Su that dwelled on cultural differences as reflected in the performing arts, namely perceptions of time and space in the West and the East.
Su Wen-chi was inspired to create Unconditional Love and Fact by her 2016 artistic residency at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), which triggered questions about scientists, research, skepticism, beliefs, and acceptance. Su created Unconditional Love and Fact with Lin I-fang (æÂÂæ¡è³), a Taiwanese dancer based in Montpellier, France.
In addition to the Taiwanese creative team, Indonesian and Japanese artists were also invited to participate in the work, cutting in from the original limbs, shouting, sight imaging, etc., to show the cosmic image in the heart.
Through cooperation with visual artists Liao Qiyu, Zhang Humming, and sound artists Lai Zongyun and Esteban Fernandez, Su Wen-chi had indeed broadened the audience's eyes on a small stage, opened the span of space and time, and performed with "long time" and "planet surface" (not even the earth) for the scene, which had indeed reached some kind of "non-human center" visually.
La Prairie cooperated with Taiwanese dance artist Su Wen-chi for the first time to start a new dialogue with the dance drama Moving Towards the Horizon. Under the sparkling waves of Miami Beach, she showed the flow of time and seconds, interpreting the staggered encounters of sky and water waves. La Prairie's cooperation with Su Wen-chi this time seemed to be an intuitive meeting of the two hearts. Naturally, it was sincere and from the heart, which was a fusion of artistic beauty and precision science.