I Swallow the Tide to Light Up…, 2024

Performance and installation 

Length of the performance, 11min43s 
Dimension of the installation, size variable


Hand-carved and painted limewood, Stainless-steel, natural Gemstone beads, glass beads, copper threads, brass bells, leather drum, natural dye silk, nylon rope, grains, automobile grease, sea shells, 3D-printed aluminum alloy, vegetable-tanned cowhide and swine leather


Video shooting and editing:
Furio Ganz

Script:
Liao Wen

Sound:
Anita Pan

Performers (in order of appearance):
Luca Campestri
Andrea Cimino
Elisa Di Piero
Rachele Tinkham 
Liao Wen

A gigantic whale hangs from the ceiling, its bones precisely numbered and its spine extends to a tail where perpendicular metal rods are inserted. Blood spills from its mouth. During the exhibition, the scientific, specimen-like depiction of the whale will be activated – if not completed – by a brutal and vehement performance, a tale of violent human interventions in our interactions or understanding of other species.


The story unfolds like the rite of Bouphonia – ‘ox-slaying’ in Greek – a sacrificial killing performed for Zeus that resembles a combat dance. All performers are implicated in the violent act against the scapegoat (the whale in this case), yet all are acquitted and guiltless in the ‘trial’.


When villagers discover a whale deep in a foggy room, some are astounded at the mysterious creature, while others wish to possess a piece of it or to mathematically analyse it with tools. As the ritual crescendos to its climax, the whale’s organs are taken out one by one and at some point, a villager takes the tail apart and attaches it to themselves. Its fragmentary body is what is left of it in the end, like the remains of wicks in whale oil lamps. Human’s rooted obsession to absorb others into our own system is placed side by side with the utilitarian exploitation of these cohabitants for our convenience and well-being.