Hot Pot – Spicy Little Art Festival
How to Disappear (Completely)
Outdoor Video installation by Mayumi Arai & Nina Willimann

Saturday, 21 November, 5pm
Kai Tak Campus, Academy of Visual Arts

A series of practices around the process of disappearing – physically or metaphorically, temporarily and at least partially

In Chinese tradition, matters concerning the psyche and attainment of deeper insight are often approached via the body, not via the cognitive reflection. The basic idea of the Chinese martial art T’ai chi ch’uan (or Tai Chi) is linked to the philosophical principle that, if one uses hardness to resist violent force, then both sides are certainly to be injured. Instead, students are taught not to directly fight or resist an incoming force, but to meet it in softness and follow its motion while remaining in physical contact until the incoming force of attack exhausts itself or can be redirected.

Being both strangers in Hong Kong and Tai Chi beginners, we take this basic idea as our base for the development of a series of practices in order of trying to integrate, to become part of, to gradually disappear in a foreign environment.