2019 Festival Review & Publication of Accounts|The 7th UP-ON International Live Art Festival

ARTISTS LIST

International Artists:Chinese Artists:

Carlos Llavata (Spain)
Helinä Hukkataival (Finland)
Inari Virmakoski (Finland)
Janusz Bałdyga (Poland)
Peter Baren (Netherlands)
Ralf Berger (Germany)
Seiji Shimoda (Japan)
苍鑫 Cang Xin(中国北京 / Beijing, China)
董洁 Dong Jie(中国成都 / Chengdu, China)
付尧 Fu Yao(中国内蒙古 / Inner Mongolia, China)
打劫小组 Hijack Group(中国上海 / Shanghai, China)
何悠 He You(中国北京 / Beijing, China)
刘宾 Liu Bin(中国西安 / Xi’an, China)
刘香林 Liu Xianglin(中国深圳 / Shenzhen, China)
刘小妤 Liu Xiaoyu(中国台北 / Taipei, China)
木芫 Mu Yuan(中国上海 / Shanghai, China)
彭湘 Peng Xiang(中国南宁 / Nanning, China)
邱文青 Qiu Wenqing(中国成都 / Chengdu, China)
时永华 Shi Yonghua(中国贵阳 / Guiyang, China)
宋兮 Song Xi(中国上海 / Shanghai, China)
童文敏 Tong Wenmin(中国重庆 / Chongqing, China)
王彦鑫 Wang Yanxin(中国成都 / Chengdu, China)
王溪曼 Wang Ximan(中国沈阳 / Shenyang, China)
杨辉 Yang Hui(中国昆明 / Kunming, China)
于名晶 Yu Mingjing(中国成都 / Chengdu, China)
杨俊峰 Yang Junfeng(中国成都 / Chengdu, China)

ACADEMIC LECTURE 

ROUND 1 Artist: Helina Hukkataival (Finland) Oct 14 19:00-20:30 The Art Museum of Sichuan University 
ROUND 2 Artist: Seiji Shimoda (Japan) Oct 15 19:00-20:30 Gao Xiaohua Gallery, Southwest MinZu University 
ROUND 3 Artist: Carlos Llavata (Spain) Oct 16 19:00-20:30Oct 17 11:00-12:30 pm
ROUND 4 Artist: Ralf Berger (Germany) Oct 17 11:00-12:30 LUXE LAKES· A4 Art Museum 
The School of Architecture and Design, Southwest Jiaotong University ROUND 5 Artist: Cang Xin (Beijing) Luxehills Art Museum 
ROUND 7 Artist: Janusz Baldyga (Poland) Oct 21 11 :00-12:30
Oil Painting Department of Fine Art Institute at Sichuan Conservatory of Music 

PERFORMANCE WORKSHOP 

Oct 16
14:00-18:00
Artist: Carlos Llavata (Spain) Oil Painting Department of Fine Art Institute at Sichuan Conservatory of Music, Xindu campus 


On-Site Performance Creation

Oct. 17 14:00-18:00 LUXELAKES·A4 Art Museum 
Oct. 18 14:00-18:00DoBe E-Manor of Chengdu 
Oct. 19 14:00-18:00Luxehills Art Museum 
Oct. 20 14:00-18:00 Tianfu College of Southwestern University of Finance And Economics 
Oct. 21 14:00-18:00College of Architecture and Design of Southwest Jiaotong University (XiPu Campus)
Festival Financial Manager: Zhang Yaofang


10/13
Kinmirai Art Gallery Hostel

Artist Arrival


10/14
The artist visits and confirms the performance venue


10 / 14 Lecture

19:00-21:00

Artist: Helina Hukkataival (Finland) 

The Art Museum of Sichuan University 

Check the Link To Read the Related Article


10 / 15 Lecture

19:00-20:30

Artist: Seiji Shimoda (Japan)  

Gao Xiaohua Gallery, Southwest MinZu University 

Check The Link To Read Related Article


10 / 16 Lecture

19:00-20:30

Artist:Carlos Llavata (Spain) 

Oil Painting Department of  Fine Art Institute at Sichuan Conservatory of Music 


11:00-12:30 LECTURE

Artist: Ralf Berger (Germany) 


Opening Ceremony

14:00

Zhou Bin, the representative of UP-ON organizer, made a speech
Sunny Sun, the representative of Luxelakes·A4 Museum, made a speech
Helina Hukkataival & Inari Virmakosi, the representatives of UP-ON Artist, made a speech
Group photo of the 7th UP-ON International Live Art Festival

ON-SITE PERFORMANCE

14:30-18:00


Helina Hukkataival (Finland) & Inari Virmakoski (Finland)

Title: Water and skipping

Duration: 20 mins

Finnish artists Helina Hukkataival and Inari Virmakoski, dressed identically in white tops and black trousers, begin their performance bound together at the waist by a length of coarse rope. Standing side by side at the edge of a lake, they draw water into small buckets and carry them to the center of a nearby square. In synchronized movements, they scoop and splash water—ritualistic, deliberate. Then they unfasten the rope from their waists but keep it in hand. Sitting apart on large stones at opposite ends of the square, they hold the rope taut between them, using it to create balance and tension—an invisible force field of quiet negotiation. Finally, they return to the square’s center. The rope transforms again—this time into an invitation. They swing it wide, turning it into a jump rope, opening the space to the audience and drawing them into playful participation.


He You (BEIJING)

Title: Do you want to leave here together?

Duration: 20 mins

Artist He You carries a black umbrella throughout the entire performance. He begins by standing on a raised platform at the edge of the lake. He jumps down, climbs back up, and repeats—quietly, deliberately. He then walks into the crowd, meeting the eyes of various onlookers. With a steady gaze, he invites one audience member to join him. Taking their hand, he leads them into a shallow pool. Together, they walk slowly through the water toward the lake’s edge. There, the two board a small wooden boat and begin a silent crossing toward the far shore. After several minutes on the water, the artist returns alone, guiding the boat back with only himself and the black umbrella aboard.


Dong Jie (CHENGDU)

Title: My forehead: the witness of the growth of grass

Duration: 60 mins

Artist Dong Jie creates a performance using a balance scale, a goldfish bowl, fine thread, and precise gestures. She begins by weighing two equal vessels—one filled with millet, the other with water. A single live goldfish swims inside the water-filled bowl. She places both containers on opposite sides of a large balance scale. Then, positioning herself on the ground between the two bowls—mirroring the axis of the scale—she lies flat. Suspended directly above her face, a weight hangs from her mouth by a thin thread, hovering over the center of the scale. With ritualistic care, she alternates between the two bowls: dipping a hand into the water to collect a single drop, pressing it to her forehead, then picking one grain of millet and placing it on the wet mark. Again and again, she repeats the motion—drop, grain, drop, grain. Eventually, the suspended weight loses its balance. It slips and crashes down onto the scale with a sharp impact, disrupting the stillness.


Carlos Llavata (Spain) & Qiw Wenqing (CHENGDU)

Title: Untitled

Duration: 3 hours

Artists Carlos Llavata and Qiu Wenqing sit face-to-face at a small round table, both wearing boxing gloves. Using a megaphone, they begin a call-and-response dialogue, trading questions: “If you are you?” “If I am me?” Their exchange builds in rhythm and tension. Then, still seated, they begin lightly striking each other with their gloved fists, repeating the phrase: “Who’s the fool?”After one round of dialogue and blows, they reset and start again—with the same questions, the same provocation. The cycle repeats, over and over. As the performance continues, audience members are invited to join. Some accept, stepping into the loop of questioning and answering, becoming part of the cycle themselves. The work unfolds over three hours.


Seiji Shimoda (Japan)

Title: Beginning of Twilight City

Duration: 30 mins

Artist Seiji Shimoda stages his performance in a spacious indoor setting. Throughout the piece, a Japanese pop song from his youth—“黄昏のビギン” (“Begin at Dusk”)—plays in the background. He remains standing, his head tilted back, eyes fixed upward toward the ceiling or sky above. For the entire duration, his gaze never wavers from this vertical focus. The body stays mostly still, with only subtle, minimal movements—small shifts in posture, gentle tremors, restrained gestures.


Behind – the – Scenes

Waiting and preparing for the opening ceremony


Waiting and preparing for the opening ceremony

Artists taking a break after the creation


10 / 17 branch venue | Luxehills Art Museum

Fu Yao (NEIMENGGOL)

Title: Shit – Action I: 1979 2019

Duration: 1 hour

Artist Fu Yao lays sheets of xuan paper—over 40 years old—irregularly across the floor. He then drags more than 40 bricks into the space, grouping them in sets of 5 to 6, using strands of his own hair to pull them into position around the xuan paper. Next, he dips his tongue in ink and uses it to write, year by year, across the surface of each brick: 1979, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019. During the process, his body reacts—he vomits into a container. He then continues, dipping his tongue into the mixture of ink and vomit, and resumes writing with his tongue. After all the bricks are written on, he stands each one upright on the xuan paper, arranging them into an irregular domino-like formation. He picks up a calligraphy brush, a bamboo pole, and a towel. The pole is placed down his back. He wraps the towel over his eyes and holds it in place at the top of his head with his left hand, while holding the brush in his right. Then, step by step, he begins walking across the upright bricks. As he moves, the bricks collapse under his feet, falling onto the wooden floor beneath the paper. The sound of falling bricks echoes through the exhibition space. When the final brick falls, the artist loosens the towel, walks toward a door in the gallery, and closes it behind him. The room goes dark.


ON-SITE PERFORMANCE

14:30-18:00


Crystal Liu (TAIPEI)

Title: Together- Love-Closely (Blind-Date)

Duration: 40 mins

Participants were invited to join the matchmaking event through artist Liu’s promotional materials—posters, cards, and dating app announcements. Upon arrival, they signed in, read the participation guidelines, and were invited to sit in a circle at the center of the venue. Liu sat in the middle of the circle, surrounded by the matchmaking guests, each holding a smartphone. Inside a specially created WeChat matchmaking group, a series of questions were posted. Based on the responses and her own criteria, Liu decided whether each participant would stay in the matchmaking circle. Audience members could join the WeChat group to follow the unfolding dialogue and observe the interaction in real time. By the end of the event, three participants remained and were considered a successful match. They exchanged WeChat contacts with Liu to get to know each other further. Afterwards, Liu handed out wedding candies to the participants and chatted casually with the guests. She also served brown sugar honey tea and pastries she had prepared for everyone to enjoy.


Shi Yonghua (GUIYANG)

Title: 400ML

Duration: 30 mins

Artist Shi Yonghua enters the space with a sharp scream. He sprinkles clean water toward the audience, using his body to circle around them, marking their presence with traces of water on the ground. He repeatedly immerses himself in four buckets placed nearby—containing yellow, white, and black pigments, along with clear water—alternating between staining and washing his body. At the end of the performance, he wraps himself in gold-colored paper laid on the floor, bringing the piece to a close.


Yang Hui (KUNMING)

Title: ASK

Duration: 20 mins

Artist Yang Hui enters the space carrying a stack of newspapers and walks to the center. Standing still, he begins rubbing a sheet of newspaper over his face while repeatedly reciting a phrase in the Bai language—a language spoken by the Bai people, an ethnic minority from Yunnan, the artist’s home province and his own ethnic group. The phrase translates to: “You are here, I am not here; you are not here, I am here.” As he speaks, he slowly paces in place and turns his body in circles. Throughout the performance, newspapers continuously slip from his hands and fall to the ground. When the final sheet drops, he calmly gathers all the scattered papers and exits the space, marking the end of the performance.


Inari Virmakoski (Finland)

Title: Alluring Spring

Duration: 20 mins

Finnish artist Inari Virmakoski incorporates materials such as leaves, banana leaves, and eggs into her performances. The piece centers around movement—she carries green plants while spinning, walking, running, and dancing with expressive gestures. Along the way, she asks audience members about geographic directions, and through these interactions, invites different people to hold two leaves she hands them. She encourages participants to imagine themselves moving like butterflies. The performance concludes with everyone holding the leaves, gently stepping and dancing together.


Behind – the – Scenes


10 / 18 branch venue |
Tianfu College of Southwestern University of Finance And Economics 

Song Xi (SHANGHAI)

Title: Standard Statute

Duration: 30 mins

In his work Standard Statue, artist Song Xi stands in place and pushes a suspended knife outward. As it swings back with recoil, the blade touches his body at the original point. He then walks to the furthest point the knife reaches after impact, and from there, pushes it out again. The knife returns, striking his body once more. This action repeats—push, return, contact—the blade carving its presence into the body through force and repetition.


10 / 18 branch venue | Luxehills Art Museum

Fu Yao (NEIMENGOL)

Title: Fate Shit – Action II: Damn

Duration: 60 mins

On a wooden board supported by eight bricks, a variety of objects are arranged: glass vessels, silicone, plaster powder, water, a withered potted plant, small plastic boxes, a wooden stick, and a convex mirror. Artist Fu Yao approaches the setup, removes his clothes, puts on a long white robe, and takes off his underwear. He steps onto the board, crouches down, and begins tapping the glass vessels with a spoon. He mixes plaster powder and water in a small plastic box to create a mold of his genitals. He then prepares silicone by mixing a special powder with water and pours the mixture into the mold. Finally, he stands, raises a large vessel filled with silicone above his head, and pours the contents down onto himself. The liquid silicone flows from his hair, covering his entire body. The empty vessel crashes to the ground. With his eyes sealed by the silicone, he steps down from the board, puts on his underwear, gathers his clothes in his arms, and reaches for the bamboo pole. Holding his clothes in one hand and using the pole to feel his way, he traces the edge of the gallery wall. Eventually, he reaches a door, opens it, walks out, and closes it behind him.


11:00-12:30 LECTURE

Artist: Cang Xin (BEIJING) 

ON-SITE PERFORMANCE

14:30-18:00


Ralf Berger (Germany)

Title: Portable Kidnap

Duration: 30 mins

Part of German artist Ralf Beger’s work involves pre-recorded, processed footage that is concealed and later played back in two indoor gallery spaces. The other part takes place live, outside the museum, inside a taxi. A person dressed entirely in black, wearing a black mask, invites audience members one by one into the taxi. In front of the back seat, a surveillance monitor is placed at the center, and speakers are installed inside the vehicle. The viewer sits in the back seat, while the masked figure takes the front passenger seat. The taxi driver then drives the car on a loop through the surrounding area of Luzhen, eventually returning to the starting point—the museum entrance—where the next participant is invited to enter. Throughout the entire process, the artist himself remains hidden in the trunk of the taxi.


Wang Ximan (SHENGYANG)

Title: A Shallow

Duration: 4 hours

Artist Wang Ximan enters with her upper body covered in double-sided tape. She uses a nail gun to puncture and burst letter-shaped balloons. Then she tears off the tape from her skin. She lights a white candle and places it at the center of a wax pile, then lights a blue candle, raises it, and lets the melting wax drip down, sealing over her eyes, the bridge of her nose, and mouth. She walks to the opposite side of the wax pile, toward a blue pom-pom cluster, and empties colorful plastic balls hidden inside the sleeves of her black bodysuit. Lying down on the floor, she attaches the pom-pom beads to her body using the sticky surface. She then puts on the black bodysuit and begins to either wander or lie down in the space. She picks up the nail gun again and, from across the wax pile, shoots at balloons—aiming in various postures, including lying down as if at rest, holding still until all balloons are destroyed. In the second half of the performance, the artist sits in front of the white wax pile, attempting to cover her legs with wax pellets. She pours melted wax over both the pile and her own body, creating a shallow pool behind her. She lies in it. In the final moments, she removes the black suit and peels off the double-sided tape—now covered in pom-poms and beads—and leaves it on the wax pile. The performance lasts approximately three hours.


Yu Minjing (CHENGDU)

Title: Lifting a piece of glass

Duration: 10 mins

Artist Yu Mingjing invited all of her family members living in Chengdu to the museum to collectively hold up a single sheet of glass.


Fu Yao (NEIMENGGOL)

Title: Fate shit: Sadhu

Duration: 30 mins

Artist Fu Yao bends down, holding a glass bottle, and urinates into it through the opening of his long robe. He pours the urine into a transparent electric kettle and begins to boil it. He lays out seven sheets of xuan paper—over 40 years old—one by one on the floor, and hangs three additional sheets on the wall. Once the urine begins to boil, he adds rice to the liquid and continues cooking. He then ties together a bundle made from his own hair and the same bamboo pole used in his previous two performances. Dipping this hair-brush into pre-prepared urine, he begins writing on the sheets of xuan paper: “Form is emptiness, emptiness is shit.” On one of the wall-mounted sheets, he writes: “The Shit Artist.” He reduces the heat under the boiling mixture of urine and rice, scoops it into a glass bowl, and eats the contents. After finishing, he adds more urine and rice to the kettle to prepare a second batch. As the mixture boils again and steam fills the room, the artist stands up, dragging the bamboo pole with the hair behind him, and walks out of the space. He disappears.


Wang Yanxin (CHENGDU)

Title: Untitled

Duration: 30 mins

Artist Wang Yanxin’s performance is structured in four segments: the audience throws rings downward; the artist draws circles on the floor with a piece of chalk; the artist uses a blower to scatter the clothes he has taken off; and finally, he blows a whistle, jumps upward, then pours glass marbles down onto the ground. Between each segment, a numbered balloon is released into the air.


Janusz Baldyga (Poland)

Title: Leef side-balance, PL

Duration: 30 mins

Polish artist Janusz Baldyga enters wearing a formal black-and-white outfit. With his hands hidden inside his long sleeves, he draws a horizontal black line on the floor. He puts on long white sleeves and stands on one leg atop a stack of A4 paper. Slowly lowering the sleeves, he maintains balance while striking his chest and face with his right hand, repeatedly saying the words “Figure” and “Mask.” He then kneels in front of the paper stack, biting down on a thick iron wire. One by one, he presses sheets of white paper against the wire, which gradually accumulates and begins to cover his face. After some time, he places one foot on the stack of paper, bracing against a vertical wall, and rotates his upper body slowly while close to the floor. He ties one corner of a white flag to his right ankle and hops through the space on one foot, carrying the flag. Finally, he unfolds and puts on a specially made white apron, marking the end of the performance.


Hijack (SHANGHAI)

Title: Wishing Well

Duration: 30 mins

Hijack, a collaborative duo composed of artists Xie Jing and Zhang Qiong, presented the work Wishing Well, using the entire four-story spiral staircase and the circular platform at its base as the performance space. On the ground floor, eight circular mirrors were arranged unevenly across the round platform, all facing upward. Audience members were free to choose their viewing position, scattered throughout the stairwell. The two artists, their necks and arms draped with numerous pearl necklaces and ornaments of varying lengths and sizes, moved in opposite directions—one starting from the top floor, the other from the bottom. At each level, they paused, lifted a strand of pearls from their bodies, made a solemn wish, and then cut the strand with scissors they carried. As they moved, the falling pearls bounced and scattered through different levels and among the audience, accompanied by the sound of pearls hitting the floor and mirrors breaking. This action was repeated at every level of the stairwell. Gradually, audience members began to participate: some reached out to catch the falling pearls, others picked them up and tossed them down the stairwell. Some rushed into the debris of shattered mirrors and scattered ornaments to retrieve intact jewellery. As more pearls fell, a swirling, atmospheric visual pattern emerged, like a weather phenomenon. By the end, all the mirrors at the base were completely broken from repeated impact. After several cycles of movement up and down the staircase, with all the pearl strands finally on the ground, the artists dropped their scissors and left the space, marking the end of the performance. The piece lasted approximately 30 minutes. Afterwards, some audience members remained in the space, playing and gathering pearls. They began making their own jewelry or unique keepsakes from the remnants.


Mu Yuan (SHANGHAI)

Title: We spend lots of time to reach false consistency

Duration: 30 mins

Artist Mu Yuan’s work incorporates shatterproof glass, ice blocks, foam boxes, white sugar, and two silent video projections playing at different speeds. The shifting light and shadow within the space is deliberately treated as an integral part of the live experience. The performance begins with the artist absent. The entire space is illuminated by shadowless lights, creating a clean, undisturbed environment. The objects on the floor remain still and quiet. After a period of time, the shadowless lighting is turned off, allowing the floor projection of one silent video to gradually appear. The artist enters and, under a dim spotlight, opens a foam box to reveal a screen playing a second silent video. She then moves four foam boxes filled with ice blocks from the corner of the room to the side of a 40-kilogram sheet of glass. She begins pushing the ice, piece by piece, under the glass using various methods, attempting to maintain a precarious balance that inevitably slips beyond control. Throughout the process, ice shatters or melts. The glass shifts and tilts in her hands, constantly changing direction. As condensation forms from the contact between the cold ice and the glass, the floor projection and light refractions on the walls begin to shift. When the shadowless lights come back on, she sprinkles white sugar over the moisture-covered glass, revealing a faint, hidden image. At the end, she returns the six foam boxes to their original positions and exits the space.


Behind the scenes


11:00-12:30 LECTURE

Artist: Carlos llavata (Spain)


ON-SITE PERFORMANCE

14:30-18:00


Helina Hukkataival (Finland)

Title: Pages from a Chinese Stone Library

Duration: 90 mins

Finnish artist Helina Hukkataival presented a highly participatory work. In front of the school library entrance, she sat on one side of a square table, with several stones of various shapes placed in front of her—each one collected from around the campus. Audience members were invited to sit across from her, choose a stone they liked, and select a surface of the stone they wanted to have rubbed. The artist then placed a sheet of paper over the chosen side and began making a charcoal rubbing. Once the rubbing was complete, she asked the participant how they interpreted the resulting image. Finally, she signed the work and gifted it to the participant to keep.


Yang Junfeng (CHENGDU)

Title: Untitled

Duration: 30 mins

Artist Yang Junfeng dug a hole in the ground and hit a golf ball into it. The ball, marked with the number of swings it took to reach the hole, was then sealed inside.


Tong Wenmin (CHONGQING)

Title: For A Long Time Ago

Duration: 40 mins

Artist Tong Wenmin bound various types of plants onto the volunteers’ bodies in different postures, forming a forest with their figures.


Qiu WenQing (CHENGDU)

Title: Untitled

Duration: 30 mins

Artist Qiu Wenqing handed out bags of pre-prepared sand and soil to audience members, one by one. She then lay prone across a chair, raising her left hand—filled with sand—behind her back. The sand slowly trickled through her fingers. Audience members stepped forward and gently poured their own sand onto her hand or back. Afterward, they were free to use the sand however they wished. Once the space grew quiet, the artist stood up, sat on the chair, and slapped her thigh with her right hand while saying, “no.” She then gathered the sand scattered on the ground and placed it on another chair, this one facing the audience. She invited one audience member to sit in the clean chair. Putting on a pair of old, worn gloves that had been hanging nearby, she returned to the seated participant, whispered softly, “close your eyes,” and together they closed their eyes for two minutes. Afterward, the artist took their hand, and the two quietly exited the space.


Peng Xiang (NANNING)

Title: No Watermelon

Duration: 15 mins

Artist Peng Xiang propped up a pair of pants using dead branches to hold open the legs, then pulled the pants over his head in reverse. The zipper was left open to expose the mouth, which was stuffed with weeds. His arms and legs were also bound with weeds, as if the plants were growing from his body. The branches inside the pants were used to hang his removed shoes. With his eyes covered, he slowly and cautiously moved through the plaza, groping his way forward. He then sat down and rolled over, attempting to perform a handstand using prosthetic limbs. After a prolonged struggle, one of the prosthetics snapped. He continued to push himself, but ultimately failed and gave up. The performance ended there.


Yu Mingjing (CHENGDU)

Title: Take a Walk

Duration: 20 mins

Artist Yu Mingjing invited 20 volunteers to perform repeated, fixed actions both inside and outside the container art museum, each focusing intently on perceiving the surrounding sounds. The audience was invited to notice the subtle changes happening around them.

One girl walked down and then up the stairs in a loop.
One girl stepped continuously on a pile of stones.
Three boys ran in circles.
One girl walked slowly backward around the museum.
Three girls walked slowly backward through the grass.
One girl moved backward through a crowd of spectators.
Two girls walked in circles while stepping backward.
Four girls walked slowly backward inside the container space.
One boy lay sleeping in the grass.
One girl stepped repeatedly on the grass.
One girl held her left hand raised.
One girl walked backward on the second floor of the container.


Carlos llavata (Spain)

Title: Rice Brings Us Heaven

Duration: 15 mins

Spanish artist Carlos Llavata’s performance took place inside an abandoned shipping container. Throughout the entire piece, a portable player looped the Great Compassion Mantra. At the beginning, accompanied by the mantra, the artist walked through the space, scattering rice toward the audience. He then stood at one end of the container, holding a small piece of transparent glass over his face. At the opposite end, five fireworks were neatly arranged. He invited members of the audience to take the fireworks and aim them at him. As each firework was ignited, sparks struck the artist’s body and burned against him. Each audience member displayed a different reaction and attitude during the act of firing.


Cang Xin (BEIJING)

Title: Energy Conversion

Duration: 30 mins

Artist Cang Xin first removed his clothes and covered his entire body in gold paint. He then directed 33 volunteers to hold torches and form a circle.
He stepped into a prepared earth pattern of a Native American medicine wheel, within which stood a raised Star of David. He poured diesel and solid alcohol onto both patterns.
The sequence of ignition followed: first, the 33 torchbearers were lit one by one; then the medicine wheel was set alight; finally, the Star of David was ignited. As the flames began to die down, Cang Xin pierced his own tongue with a needle threaded with red paper money.

The performance lasted 35 minutes.


Behind -the -Secnce


10 / 20 branch venue | Luxehills Art Museum

Fu Yao (NEIMENGOL)

Title: Fate Shit – Action IV: Well Said

Duration: 60 mins

Artist Fu Yao walked to one side of the space and picked up the same bamboo pole used in his previous performances (I/II/III). Bending forward, he pressed his head against the wall and began whipping his own buttocks with the pole. Switching hands repeatedly, he continued striking himself. With each blow, the white robe he wore gradually lifted and shortened from the motion. He continued until exhaustion, then collapsed to the ground, kneeling and lying facedown.


11:00-12:30 LECTURE

Artist: Janusz Baldyga (Poland)

ON-SITE PERFORMANCE

14:30-18:00


Liu Xianglin (SHENZHEN)

Title: Disappear

Duration: 45 mins

Artist Liu Xianglin entered the space pushing a table and a chair, one after the other. The table occasionally emitted sharp scraping sounds as it dragged across the floor. After setting them in place, he took a book and a lamp from a nearby suitcase and placed them on the table. Carrying the closed suitcase, he walked toward a bush, immersing his body into the foliage and pacing back and forth until movement became difficult. He then dragged the suitcase beyond the circle formed by the audience, only to return with a pair of pruning shears from inside. Using the shears, he began trimming the uneven branches that obstructed his path, aligning them by repeatedly walking through the bushes and using his own body as a guide. In three stages, he gradually moved the table, chair, book, lamp, and suitcase deep into the bush. Finally, with nothing left beside him, he also concealed himself within the foliage. After a while, once the bush had become still and silent, his arms emerged. The audience could faintly see him undress, piece by piece—removing his outer clothing, shoes, and socks—folding them and lifting them in his hands before hurling each item forcefully onto the ground outside the bush. At last, he removed his glasses and watch, placing them in his left and right hands, respectively, and held both arms aloft, frozen in place within the bush. At the artist’s request, no applause or curtain call followed. The performance ended in complete silence.


Liu Bin( XI’AN)

Title: Untitled

Duration: 20 mins

Artist Liu Bin sits at a desk, her back facing the door. On the desk is a stack of paper. As the audience enters, she continuously writes on the pages, one after another, crumpling each sheet into a ball. She continues until the final sheet, which she writes on but does not crumple. Instead, she stands and pins it to the wall. She returns to her seat, picks up a magnifying glass, and carefully wipes it clean. Once finished, she slowly walks to the opposite side of the wall and leans in close, using the magnifying glass to examine the surface. After about ten minutes, she turns and slowly paces the room, using the magnifying glass to observe the audience, scanning the crowd before returning to the wall. She ties the magnifying glass with a string and hangs it on the wall. Then, she exits the space. After the artist leaves, some audience members approach the wall to read the pinned sheet. Others begin unfolding the crumpled papers on the desk, discovering that each one contains the word “what” written in mirror-reversed form.

Special Live Segment
This year, UP-ON also introduced a special live segment, offering an opportunity for both domestic and international visitors—those who came voluntarily to watch the festival and expressed a desire to experiment with performance art—to present their own works on site.

*Riko Takahashi

Title: Pragile Color

Duration: 20-30 mins

Japanese artist Riko Takahashi, who traveled to Chengdu on her own initiative to attend the festival, took part in the final day’s special live segment. She used A4 sheets placed in front of her, slowly squatting down to pick up a sheet, then gradually straightening her body to a standing position. She gently blew the sheet from her face, then repeated the action at an extremely slow pace. The performance ended with this quiet repetition.


*Wang Qingyang

Title: Over the Rainbow

Duration: 15 mins

Wang Qingyang, one of the curatorial members of UP-ON, also took part in the final day’s special live segment, volunteering to create a work on site. He sat at the base of a staircase, continuously plucking the spines from a cactus placed in front of him. After removing all the spines, he ascended the stairs, carefully laying each spine one by one along the handrail. Once finished, he stood silently at the top of the staircase, his back facing the audience. Suddenly, he turned, threw the cactus, and chased after it—brushing the spines off the handrail as he ran down at full speed. Reaching the fallen cactus, he began striking it violently with his hands. The performance ended as he crushed the cactus, ran back up the stairs, and disappeared from the audience’s view.


*Wang Mengnan

Title: Cloth Cloth

Duration: 20-35 mins

Wang Mengnan, an artist from Chongqing whose primary practice is in fashion design and who also participated in the 5th edition of UP-ON, joined the final day’s special live segment as a voluntary performer. She invited eight people to put on identical white garments. As more participants joined one by one, each was asked to choose a gesture and physically connect with the previous person—options included embracing, leaning back-to-back, touching hands, or connecting feet. Each point of contact was then sewn together at the clothing level. Once all eight participants were joined, they moved together as a connected body up to the second-floor indoor space. There, various pairs of scissors of different sizes and styles had been laid out. One by one, the participants selected a pair and used it to cut open the stitched connections between themselves and the previous person. The performance concluded after the final stitch between the last two participants was cut.


Liu Bin( XI’AN)

Title: We Talk

Duration: 40 mins

Artist Liu Bin slowly descended from the second floor and sat quietly on a bench for a moment. She then stood up and, at an extremely slow pace, raised his right hand, opening her palm. Extending her hand toward the audience, she used gesture alone to invite participation, interacting with one person at a time. Her hand never touched the participant’s; there was always a small space between them. Together, they moved—or remained still—guiding the space between their hands up, down, left, right. The artist and participant continuously shifted roles between leader and follower. After inviting two or three individuals in this way, Liu Bin gradually expanded the invitation. More audience members joined in, and some began spontaneously pairing up, mimicking the same hand-to-hand interaction. Duos became trios, then groups of four. These small groups merged, wove through one another, forming a larger collective movement. Eventually, the space between hands disappeared. People began holding hands. In the end, everyone in the room joined in, forming one large circle that rotated and moved together.

This marked the conclusion of the final performance—and the end of five days of live works.


Behind-the-Scenes


10 / 21 branch venue | Luxehills Art Museum

Fu Yao (NEIMENGOL)

Title: Fate Shit – Action V: Form Is Emptiness, Emptiness Is Shit 

Duration: 60 mins

Artist Fu Yao walked a full circle around the space, observing and touching a range of objects—props, images, plants, and materials that had been exhibited, created, or used over the previous four days. Returning to the entrance of the exhibition hall, he dipped his finger in red paint and wrote on his own A1-sized résumé posted on the wall: “WHO WROTE THIS SHIT.” He then picked up a thick, long bamboo pole at random and began tearing down the images on the walls. With the bamboo pole, he smashed display objects, shook and tore at tents, and overturned all the wooden structures—reducing them to scattered fragments. In one corner of the space, he removed his white robe and knelt, face down. The sides of his buttocks, struck during the previous day’s performance, were now visibly bruised and darkened. He stood up and embraced each person in the room, one by one, with tears in his eyes.

Artist Sharing Seminar 14:00-16:00

Artist: Song X i<7th UP-ON Performance Video Sharing – Standard Statue>
Artist: Carlos Llaveiro<At the INTRAMURS Festival in the Mediterranean and Moving Culture>  
Artist: Yong Xian<Capital @ Art – Performance Art in Frankfurt>

Group Dinner 18: 00



Acknowledgments

Sincere thanks to all institutions and individuals who participated in and supported the operation of the 7th UP-ON International Live Art Festival:

| Observers: Chen Mo, Cui Fuli, Ding Fenqi, Huang Xiaorong, Lan Qingwei, Li Jie, Lin Hanjian, Sophia Kidd, Tang Peixian, Tian Meng, Zha Changping, Zhang Yingchuan

| LUXELAKES·A4 Art Museum: Sun Li, Li Dai, Hu Yue, Li Xiwen, Zhang Xinyue, Liu Qiao, Tan Jiasun, Yue Xin, Ge Tingting, Hu Ying, Deng Jie, Qiao Yu, Lu Yali, Tang Yixiang, Sui Yue

| School of Art and Design, Tianfu College of Southwestern University of Finance and Economics: Li Wenbo, Peng Wenxiu, Lin Lin, He Simin, Qu Yaping, Xie Xinhui, Bi Fei, Zhang Xinxin, Yu Jiangping, Fang Yu, Qu Yaping, Lei Shiyu, Li Yang, Meng Qin, Zhu Shu, Wu Wenke, Yang Zhe, Xie Zhuo, Shi Shu, Zhang Xiangying, Wu Yue, Lei Shiyu, Yang Zhi, Zhou Xiaogang, Chen Si, Yu Fang Shuyang, Han Xian, and all students involved in the realization of the artists’ works

| Luxehills Art Museum: Li Mingming, Zhang Lan

| DoBe E-Manor of Chengdu: Kou Xiao

| School of Architecture and Design, Southwest Jiaotong University: Liu Chunyao, Xiong Lu

| Art Museum of Sichuan University: Xiong Yu, Zhu Yue, Yan Junxiong, Zhou Ziyi

| Gao Xiaohua Art Museum: Zhai Yitao

| College of Fine Art, Sichuan Conservatory of Music: Wei Yan, Sun Haili, Liu Xiaobo, Han Zhong, Ma Kun, Gu Xuanzhe

| Kinmirai Art Gallery Hostel: Ding Ziyang, Wu Ziqian, Wang Ying, Yang Xi, Ma Siyuan, Wang Jiaxin, Wang Ying

| 1314 Magazine: Gan Yun, Li Jiyang, Wei Shenya, Cheng Ai, Yuan Tianjing

| Tai Art: Chen Yinghong, Shi Xu, Liang Xuejiao

| Chile Planet: Dong Yifei

| IPF (Idea Production Factory): Rorí Mencin, Cui Xi

| Voluntary Participants: Xue Yuxiang, Feng Feifei, CoCo, Wang Siyi, Wang Danfang, Yang Chao, Sun Wanqing, Cao Songyang, Li Yuanxin, Ni Yining, Chen Jie, Song Yang, Guo Ruiting, Li Pengpeng


Web Editors | Zeng Jie

Graphic Design | Li Lifeng

Festival Artwork Photography | Wang Tianhong, Zhou Yi, Feng Feifei

Festival-Video Photography | Li Lingxuan

Festival-Video Editing | Wang Tianhong

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About the UP-ON Dorm

UP-ON Dormitory, as a supporting organization of the non-profit UP-ON Performance Art Archive, mainly provides free lodging for guests participating in the archive’s activities. more