Retina Maneuver

Ping-Hsiang Wang is obsessively fascinated with Alicia Keys’ pop song Girl on Fire. To his great frustration, he no longer remembers where he was when Keys released the song in 2012. A fanatical search through his digital archives yields a photo from his Facebook page confronting him with his past.  

Wang didn’t have a classical artistic education, but he did stand out during the last edition of WIPCOOP (Work In Progress Coöperatie). In this lecture-performance, he weaves together various media (including text, sound, livestreaming video, objects, and documents) into a layered piece full of unexpected plot twists. For example, the audience initially thinks that the piece will be about his lover, but it soon unfolds into a reflection on the artist’s own political context.  

Digging deeper, Wang recalls his time in Taiwan ten years earlier through a queer lens. He astutely refutes simple narratives such as ‘them versus us’. He always seeks out nuance and creates a cleverly constructed campy performance and choreography, full of pop culture references. What memories can he still save?  

• Ping-Hsiang Wang is a Berlin-based theatre director originally from Taiwan. His signature aesthetic focuses on transforming ordinary everyday landscapes into fantastical digital realities. His work envisions narrative as a full sensory experience, and combines multiple performative elements using text, sound, movement, livestreaming video, objects, documents, and scenography.