44

Christoph Winkler & Naishi Wang: Crossing Half Of China To Sleep With You. 25.02.2017, Vierte Welt, Berlin

I press many nights into one morning. Of all the compelling phrases of Chinese farmer Yu Xinhua’s breakthrough poem, this one caught my attention most – it hung, suspended, in Naishi Wang’s accompanying act. Dressed in a sparkly outfit complete with bold lipstick, the glamorous performer took us through a series of poses, gestures and facial expressions resounding with a delicate intimacy. Embodying in movement the subtle difference between the original Chinese and the translated English version of the poem, Wang used the breath to access and interpret an underlying sensibility. A fusion between poetics and structure, the East and the West, the piece lived in an anthropological gap – a cultural limbo brimming with foreign meanings. Crossing half of China to bring it closer.