Our Ancestors

 

Five dancers are on stage moving as organic substances that echo natural changs and developments of living things on the earth from ancient creatures, totems to assembling social bodies of present time.

 

Our Ancestors reveals cultural identities of the Canton regions in China from archaeological and paleontological perspectives.

The work began with a study of archaeological relics from Gaomiao Culture in Hunan province, which was a Neolithic culture existed in the Yuan River in China and it was considered as an origin of the Canton culture in southern China. The work combined images of prehistoric cultural relics(white pottery) with an imaginary ecological evolution of life from ancient animals and plants of “life” to unknown creatures, from ancient rituals to contemporary gatherings(such as army parades, demonstrations and parties). Through the experimentation of the embodiment of the pastness, the connotation and extension of the mysterious prehistorical scene with contemporary life is displayed.

 

In Our Ancestors, the body was treated as relics of time and space, constantly flowing between people, objects and living organisms, and the body is no longer immutable and frozen as one identity. The identity of Cantonese is revealed through bodies that are ecological, social and political, it is ambiguous in the way that it emerges from the pastness, as well as recognizable in connection with the society we live in.

 

Our Ancestors is not a utopia, but a revelation of our cultural identities from ancient times.

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《我们的先民》

 

从澳门路环的黑沙遗址到中国南方史前文明的考古发现，《我们的先民》从残缺的白陶文物开始，用身体结合史前文物、史前环境和史前生物等意象，启动了对过去的想象。神秘的图像和富有意义的形式里不仅有某种过去的、历史的记忆，也是对今天的陈述和未来的想象。

 

在《我们的先民》中，身体跨越时空，不断地在人、物件和生物体之间流动，身体的属性不再一尘不变。“我们”是澳门的、是岭南的、是中国的、是世界的、是史前的，甚至也可以是非人类的，身体将成为一种模糊了排他性的存在。

身体的符号和意向在可变的流动性中，既内敛又充满活力，既抽象又可识别。在这种“可识别”中，历史穿透今人的视野，展现出似梦非梦、包罗万象的未来景象，一个包容和合、美美与共的理想世界。

 

但《我们的先民》不是乌托邦，它来自远古的一种可能性的启示。