Shen Wei and Maria Luisa Buzzi
Hosted by Maria Luisa Buzzi: journalist, Oriente Occidente Press Office.
A leading choreographer of the latest American generation, the Chinese artist Shen Wei is known for his highly original artistic hybridity, which arises from the fusion of Eastern and Western forms and architectures. His work features a pictorial vision of movement, rigorously spatial geometry, dynamic yet extremely slow motion. His work in Italy is still largely to be discovered.
Shen Wei, making his Italian debut in July at the Venice Biennale, was born 35 years ago in the Chinese province of Hunan, where he studied calligraphy from the age of seven and Chinese opera from the age of nine. He worked with the Hunan State Xian Opera Company from 1984 to 1989, a company with a tradition even older than the Beijing Opera. He then became a prominent member of the Guangdong Modern Dance Company, China's first contemporary dance company, where he also served as a choreographer from 1991 to 1994. His career skyrocketed when he won the first prize for choreography and performance at the Inaugural Modern Dance Competition in China in 1994. Shortly thereafter, he received a Nikolais/Louis Dance Lab Fellowship in 1995, which brought him to New York and launched him into the international dance world. He settled in New York in 2001 and founded Shen Wei Dance Arts, a company that reflects his versatility as an artist (choreographer and dancer, designer and painter, with works exhibited in Hong Kong and New York). Shen Wei integrates various artistic expressions, from Chinese opera to dance theater, from painting to sculpture, enriching his creations with imaginative richness.
The Venice Biennale program, which will also be presented here at Oriente Occidente, features Rite of Spring and Folding. Folding was originally conceived for the Guangdong Modern Dance Company during the artist's first return to China in 1999.
"In that period, I was very drawn to the movement that unfolds something—whether it's a sheet of paper, a fabric, or something else. These sensations reminded me of China, the Guangdong Modern Dance Company, my studio. Folding combines the original music of Tibetan Buddhist chant Mahakala with the gentle melodies of John Tavener. The large hand-painted backdrop alludes to a surreal scene inspired by an 18th-century watercolor by Ba Dan San Ren" (Shen Wei).
