‘Please Meat Me’ — Cannibal performance art
Print Edition
TWO-MAN performance art about a cannibal tribe combines installation art, sculpture, sound art, contemporary dance and martial arts.
“Please. Meat. Me. (III)” will be staged tonight at Anken Green, performed in an isolated space, separated by glass suggesting a museum or zoo environment for the fictitious cannibals.
The audience learns about their customs, experiences, growth, understanding and acceptance of their own cannibalistic means of survival in an imagined universe.
The show is the work of Spanish performance artist Tiago Valente and Spanish dancer and choreographer Iker Arrue. It is part of the JUE music and arts festival.
Valente, who lives in Shanghai, has a background in performing arts, journalism and fashion. He has traveled widely, researched anthropology and drawn inspiration for the production from a visit to Papua New Guinea in 2011. He has also lived with primitive tribes in the South Pacific Ocean.
He has created wearable sculpture for the performance.
“Usually in my performances and installations, the viewer is also part of the experience, and an important contribution to the project itself,” Valente says. And here, the audience will be visitors to a museum or a zoo housing the cannibals. “I’m really curious to see and to confront the audience with unexpected reflections that explore sociological and identity issues, and actually provide some time to reflect about these.”
“Now that you know a bit more of the project’s background, be prepared to allow yourself to watch and participate from a completely different perspective,” says Valente.
According to the artist, this fictitious group of cannibals is one of the world’s most committed clans, with elaborate customs and educated instincts.
“Being part of the clan implies awareness and acceptance of the main principle that defines the ethnic group: to devour the one they love the most,” Valente says. “Only at that exact point, when real love is found, this cannibalism is not only allowed, but also encouraged.”
This is only part of the story. The whole story is a large-scale project. Each chapter is represented in a different medium, together creating a collection of multi-sensory experiences.
In one chapter, dancer Arrue merges aikido martial arts with contemporary dance, creating a new choreographic language.
The space is an installation in itself, and Valente’s sculptures and embroidered works are integrated into the human figures.
“To mix installation art, sculpture, sound art, contemporary dance and martial arts in one performance is really a big challenge,” he says.
Valente has performed around the world. Some performances tap his existence with primitive tribes, some are spontaneous interactions with communities across Asia, some contrast “primitive” societies.
Date: March 20, 8pm
Venue: Anken Green, 668 Huai’an Rd
Admission: Free
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