Body Container - Questioning the line #009 / video still / 2023
Performed by Movana Chen and Francisco Borges, Filmed by Tyler Weinberger
A collaboration project “Questioning the line,” the artist Movana Chen created a new wearable double-container, knitted out of maps she collected from friends all over the world. Movana and a dancer Francisco Borges were performing in this “body container” an outer skin which envelops both bodies in a living sculpture, a million different names and human languages entangled ancient places and a thousand stories interwoven into one single story: Earth. They improvised an non-verbal dialogues between human and nature, The performances were captured on a series of films along the journey through a lens, to bring the body container to life with cinematographer Tyler Weinberger. The performances took place from Portugal thoughtout Europe in March 2023.
This approach evokes emotional responses to questions about human life. When the landscape moves, it brings light to our living relationship with nature. The spirit of the trip draws from connection and belonging through movement, dance, and nature and it highlights the invisible lines that both separate and unite people, regardless of geopolitical borders.
About the artists:
Movana Chen is a Hong Kong-based artist, who recently relocated to lived and works in Lisbon, Portugal. Since 2004 she has been weaving people’s stories through KNITerature - a genre that involves the deconstruction and reconstruction of meanings and contend by Knitting books. Her work is a multi-disciplinary fusion of media, performance, installation and sculpture. Her works have been collected by the M+ Museum, Hong Kong, CHAT (Centre of Heritage, Arts and Textile, Hong Kong.), Hong Kong Heritage Museum, Louis Vuitton, Cathay Pacific and private collectors globally.
Tyler Weinberger is a Los Angeles based cinematographer working worldwide. His work spans commercials, fashion, music, videos, and documentaries and he is always mixing the boundaries between genres to create imagery that is non specific. Tyler has worked with clients including Nike, Google, Oliver Peoples, Vans, Toyota, Cadillac, and The North Face. His recent campaign for the North Face was awarded a Bronze Clio.
Francisco Bourges is a Contact Improvisation freelancer, ecosomatic artist, performer, moving philosopher, poet, musician and mindfulness meditation teacher. He was born in the Azores Islands in Portugal, small bits of land surrounded by the great Atlantic. The Ocean (Nature) has always been his temple, music and dance his form of workshop, a way of being totally immersed in the present moment.