“syun” by jee chan
jee chan (dia / all pronouns) engages choreographically with unspeakable, unknowable and forgotten histories. Like Charmaine Poh, they explore artistic strategies of conjuring what has been buried and made invisible. Their work is concerned with questions surrounding the displaced body and what it can perform, addressing themes of grief, loss and colonial terrorism, particularly within the contexts of island Southeast Asia.
Image gallery
jee chan
The performance "syun" emerges from the moment when jee’s maternal grandmother was forcibly displaced by the invading Imperial Japanese Army in 1937—a moment she shared unexpectedly and in great detail with jee while practicing Chinese calligraphy together in 2016 and 2017. Stricken by the force of her vulnerability, jee made recordings of their grandmother’s candid recount.
In "syun," the artist listens to the recorded voice of their grandmother while simultaneously transcribing her words onto a roll of white paper in calligraphic ink. Intimate and historical violences erupt in space, channeled through the artist’s frenzied gestures.
The performance raises questions about speech, memory, impermanence and the state of being at a loss for words. It refers to the ongoing presence of colonial power structures today—structures that continue to shape bodies, language and lives, in the contexts of global atrocities, militarized societies and engineered genocides.
Additional information
Meeting point: PalaisPopulaire
Price info: Limited number of places. Please register.
Price info: Limited number of places. Please register.
Dates
October 2025
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