Anne Rochat’s Hic & Nunc Project Begins with the Great Wall in China

Doris Magico, Back to the Wall

Video duration: 1 hour
Video content: Daily live art performances or happenings
Performance dates: Mar.31-May 4, 2017
Event name: Festival Extra Ball, CCS, Paris
Screening time: 4-6pm, Apr.15, 2017

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Duration: Mar.8-May 4, 2017
Supported by Pro Helvetia Shanghai, Swiss Arts Council

Swiss artist Anne Rochat has conducted residency in March 2017 at Ming Contemporary Art Museum (McaM) in Shanghai, for a joint project with Yann Marussich. She plans to conduct an ambitious project Hic & Nunc, and walking through the Great Wall in China in April 2017 shall be her first step. She will capture her experience with one video and one live performance per day, and produce in places she considers extraordinary and symbolic. She will conduct a similar walking in the Gobi area in Taklimakan Xinjiang.

She chose the Great Wall, which in her opinion, is one of the greatest architectural structure ever built by mankind. To her, this building is an absolute masterpiece, not only because of the ambitious character of the undertaking and the perfection of the construction, but also because it’s a perfect example of integrated architecture to the landscape. Moreover, the Great Wall keeps in between its bricks the spiritual, cultural and historical essence that account for its universal uniqueness.

The insignificance of a woman going through the immensity of China, Great Wall, Qinghai lake area, and Gobi Desert, endows this walking journey a meaning beyond imagination. Crossing China by foot represents an artistic, political, and physical act that is enlightened by a contemplative walk, which privileges slowness above the speed and efficacy imperatives of our everyday lives. The important thing is not the aim or the goal, but the path that is traveled, and about being in accordance with the surrounding environment. The Swiss sculptor Alberto Giacometti considered Humans as walking beings, dignified and sensible. If we think of walking as perpetually coming back to oneself, walking is also a call to unity among the multitude. Anne Rochat wishes to unite these heterogeneous dimensions, showing that the body is the soul.

This project is a continuity of her previous video performances Doris Magico that were made of approximately 50 short action films between 2009 and 2014 during her residencies in Switzerland, India, Italy and Cambodia. The videos will be shown at the Centre Culturel Suisse in Paris (CCS) nearly in live Apr.15, 2017 during the Festival Extra Ball.

Anne Rochat’s performance and installation at the Qinghai Lake and the Gobi Desert, courtesy the artist

ANNE ROCHAT

Born in 1982 in Vallée de Joux, Switzerland. She has travelled widely in Asia, prior to her studies at Ecole cantonale d’art de Lausanne(ECAL). In 2011-2012, she took up an art residence in Varanasi. India, followed by a year-long stint at the Swiss Institute of Rome(ISR). She has won many notable prices including Prix Irène Reymond (2013), Prix Kiefer Hablitzel (2012), Bourse culturelle du Canton de Vaud (2011), Bourse culturelle de la Fondation Leenaards (2010), Swiss Awards, Art Basel (2010). Anne Rochat has performed at Guangzhou Live and at Rockbund Art Museum, Shanghai in 2014 with the support of Pro Helvetia Shanghai.

She positions the human body at the centre of her artistic work, a body flexible and strong, subtle and athletic, wild and acrobatic. Her postures are incongruous and a little absurd and lead her into offbeat situations, she expresses herself with forbidden gestures we can only dream of engaging in ourselves. The artist takes her position through actions both sensual and powerful, mellow and savage, disturbing, sometimes funny and always informed by rigorous aesthetic discipline. Spectacular without being a spectacle, the live art performances of Anne Rochat invite us to marvel.

Videos of Anne's Performance