On the occasion of the 60th la Biennale di Venezia, Berlin-Hong Kong artist Isaac Chong Wai reinterprets movement as a powerful form of resistance.
Venice, Italy — 17 April, 2024 — Berlin-Hong Kong artist Isaac Chong Wai opens an exhibition imagining forms of collective response to systemic and institutional violence.
Originally conceived in 2021, “Falling Reversely” (2021/2024) is a multifaceted project, now presented through a new large-scale video installation and performance. The exhibition takes place in a 3,000 sq. ft./300m2 space in the Arsenale at the Venice Biennale 2024 and reverses the familiar movements of falling as a thought-provoking response to anti-Asian racism.
“Throughout history and noticeably during the COVID-19 pandemic, many of us in the Asian diaspora have become targets of violence in public spaces. I wanted to create this work with performers of Asian descent to employ movement as a form of solidarity and resistance,” says Chong.
Commissioned with the invitation of Adriano Pedrosa for the 60th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia, “Foreigners Everywhere,” Chong and his performers study CCTV footage of Asian individuals who fell due to physical assaults in public spaces, striving to slow and reverse the trajectory of these attacks through bodily movement. As they form a circle with synchronized falls, they reinterpret these movements as a shield against harm.
As it unfolds before viewers, “Falling Reversely” confronts its audience with questions of autonomy and power. In conceptualizing this work, Chong visualized how marginalized communities might reclaim their bodies for themselves. In both public and private spaces, attacks against perceived “others” often take place when the aggressors believe they have an inherent right to impose power on a “lesser” group or individual. Cognizant of how marginalized individuals must move through everyday spaces in fear, Chong imagined an alternate future: where those who are marginalized integrate linked movements in their falling, reversing moments of attack and transforming them into new avenues of protest.
Performance dates at the Venice Biennale
17 Apr, 11am and 4pm
18 Apr, 11am and 4pm
19 Apr, 11am and 4pm
20 Apr, 4pm
21 Apr, 4pm
Location: Corderie dell'Arsenale
About the Artist
Isaac Chong Wai (b. 1990) is a Berlin-Hong Kong artist using performance, video, installation, photography, and drawing as mediators to investigate contemporary global phenomena. His work transforms the emotions, tensions, and memories from human interactions into performative materiality and immersive experiences. Treading the line between the individual and the collective, he examines the vulnerability of the body and the inherent violence within social systems and historical traumas and imagines alternative microcosms of human relations.
Chong is a participating artist for the 60th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia, “Foreigners Everywhere,” curated by Adriano Pedrosa. His works have gained recognition at prominent venues including the 22nd Biennale of Videobrasil, São Paulo; Bundeskunsthalle Bonn; MMCA, Seoul; IFFR, Rotterdam; MOCA Taipei; and M+, Hong Kong. His works are featured in notable collections including Hamburger Bahnhof – Nationalgalerie der Gegenwart, Berlin; Kadist, Paris and San Francisco; Burger Collection, Hong Kong and others.