Beijing and Me, or: Until a few days ago, I have never been to China,
Martin Nachbar, May 5th, 2005
Prologue
After I had read an article on the globalisation of the body through the globalisation of civilisation diseases that are promoted by the spreading of European and North-American food habits, I talked with Daniel Aschwanden about the idea to follow a food product not to its origin or place of production but to its destination, the (globalised) consumer/eater. When Daniel talked with Peter Stamer about the idea of making some kind of documentary (film or performance) on the issue of globalisation of food, Peter got interested in the possible influences of food on humans, especially in regard to gender aspects. We decided to work on the project together.
All this was in 2003. None of us, or at least I would have never expected to start the project in China. Somehow my idea was to find out about the eating and cooking habits of Europeans, their favourite foods, their most hated dishes, where and how they buy it, how they store the ingredients at home, how they prepare and cook. But then Daniel met Wu Wenguang, and he found we should start the whole project in China.
China?
I had never spent a thought on going there. Somehow China and Asia had always been too far away to really pervade my mind. Although my father had been to Canton on a business trip in the mid eighties and had come back enthusiastic about the Chinese, China was just not on my map. But I liked the idea to go somewhere that I yet didn’t have any affinity to. So, I decided to let myself be hi-jacked by Daniel (and Peter who seemed more into the idea of going to China than me; also, he had been to this country before).
What did the trip do?
First of all, China got on my map. And I am happy it didn’t do so through the current worldwide interest in the country but through the empirics of travelling there. When you come to a country that in your mind has always been far away, you are first of all surprised that gravity also works there, meaning that the world on the other side of the globe is more familiar than expected. A first impression that would soon get revised, of course. Travelling often is a tightrope walk between recognising the familiar and discovering the unknown. Sometimes it is just sensing the unknown, leaving it covered as the codes for uncovering are unknown.
Still, I was impressed by the immense drive that is around in Beijing. People are ready for growth – individual, communal, economical, intellectual, professional, artistic. With great friendliness and, at the same time, determination the Chinese people I met pursued their aims and stayed ready and open to seize their opportunities. For example, (name of Wenguang’s friend?) who told us how he suddenly had the money and found the place to establish a centre for different arts to co-habit and – miraculously fitting our research – eat together in a communal kitchen space. Without any delay he had realised the project and three weeks before we came to work with Wu Wenguang’s and Wang Hue’s (spelling?) Living Dance Theatre residing for free in this space, they had all moved to the premises between the fourth and fifth highway ring almost on the outskirts of Beijing (but most probably soon right in the centre of the city, regarding the amount and speed of building and expansion there).
What did we do?
First of all, we watched rehearsals. The Living Dance Theatre was in the middle of rehearsing their new piece “Report on Temperature”, when we came into their space. We jumped right into understanding what we saw. I was surprised to see so many different kinds of material. The company’s approach seemed to be one of playing with, testing and finally modifying and appropriating approaches from all around. There is nothing wrong with that. But I wondered about the company’s intentions and ways of appropriation. In my choreographic practice, I am used to reflect on my approaches over and over, through mental and physical practice, until I feel the outcome is close to my desires concerning the project. If I feel that the relation to one of the materials is not clear yet, I look at it again – until it gets clear or until it gets thrown out. An integral part of this work is feedback from colleagues or friends or from a dramaturg, as it is in feedback that one’s work gets reflected in the eyes of the other.
“The other” was indeed our role this time. The company courageously asked us, almost total strangers, for feedback – which we courageously gave, most of the time in form of questions.
What else did we do?
We gave classes and a workshop in improvisation. We tried food and asked people about their favourite dishes. We also asked people about their backgrounds, their lives, and their intentions. We tried to talk about politics but most of the times failed – partly because of politics being a sensitive issue in China, mostly because of our European assumptions about what thinking about politics should look like. As Wenguang put it: Cultural exchange is the respectful exchange of misunderstandings, over and over again.
Epilogue
I will go back to China. But before that, I finish an interview with Liisa Pentti for a festival program in Helsinki. Liisa is a Finish choreographer for whom I work as dramaturg this month. By the end of this month I will go to Tel Aviv where Jochen Roller and I will continue our new project “mnemonic non-stop”. It is a project that cartogrpahs four different cities with our bodies being the maps being our bodies. The first station was Berlin. The stations after Tel Aviv will be Brussels and Zagreb. The piece will be premiered in October at Steirischer Herbst in Graz. In between, I will perform for Carlos Pez in Salzburg and tour my solos to Vienna in July. There, I will take some time and meet with Peter and Daniel to discuss our stay in Beijing and see for future plannings concerning the food project and Beijing. In the Berlin festival “Tanz im August”, I will be guest of Meg Stuart in one of her improvisation events. And to finish the year, I will be a scholar of the NRW-Kunststiftung and spend November, December and January 2006 in France, partly working with choreographer Martine Pisani. In all of this, I hope that the spirit of misunderstanding will continue.
-- Main.dada - 18 May 2005