[watch & wa/onder]
LIVE WORKS (in collaboration with Sinta Wibowo)
December 2019 Sambor Preykuk, Cambodia
July 2018 Shaxi, Yunnan, China
March 2018 Semarang, Central-Java, Indonesia
[watch & wa/onder] are poetic and playful walkshops exploring normalization and imagination. I organize in close collaboration with Sinta Wibowo who works cross-disciplinary with the arts.
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October 2022
Khmer Literature Festival, Pursat, Cambodia
For the occasion of the 5th Khmer Literature Festival, Sinta & I were asked to give shape to their program Poetic Garden and let [watch & wa/onder] walkshop to host reading sessions. Earlier in 2022 I designed a poetry book collective (Cambodian Women Poetry ពុកម៉ែខ្ញុំស្រី) with 38 women and 1 non-binary, of which 5 contributors participated in the Khmer Literature Festival: SOR Randa, KIM Heng, SETH Bopha, TEAV Bandol and myself! This time, the setting was Pursat Highschool that has large terrains of open space and the expectations were 20 people joining for a 2-hour walkshop. Somehow 50 people, among them were students, literature lovers and writers, showed up and instead of the usual 6 hours calm and easy time of wandering and wondering, the exercises were now spirited and pumped up like fireworks and the fun of roller-coaster rides. Concentrating the energies and attention of 50 people in a shorter time span, generated very different dynamics than all our previous experiences with [watch & wa/onder] which made us think about various types of magic: white magic that sprinkles and inspires the mind in a refreshing way quite peacefully, black magic that propels the dynamics with energetic pushes and pulls into strong vibrations and rainbow magic that sparkles the senses in zillion of colors shooting out from participants like CareBears.
For this edition of Khmer Literature Festival, I also made an exhibition of novel covers from the old days.
With thanks to So Phina, En Sormanak, Porchou and all the volunteers for making this happen!
In collaboration with Khmer Literature Festival.
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December 2019
Sambor Preykuk, Kampong Thom, Cambodia
Before the children of Sambor Preykuk have a day trip to Angkor Wat, they join us for some [watch & wa/onder] time. We decided to set up the exercises in the outdoor environment behind their classroom, so that they will have a different relation with the surroundings they know so well. Unhabiting our habits becomes very playful an fun with the kids of 12 years old, who have another take on the exercises than adults. With the young adults and their teachers, we approached things more pedagogically, exposing the methods of opening up our mind and mobilize it beyond its previous concepts. Often our mind is limited by what it knows from experience, when it is told to think a certain way and when it likes to define and categorize. Here we let go of the mind and let the senses speak directly with the surrounding without mediation or interference of thoughts or the mind.
With thanks to An Raksmey.
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July 2018
Shaxi, Yunnan, China
Mu Xiaoliu describes the experiences she observed during the walkshop in the following article:
We often live in a fixed lifestyle and have a fixed set of social norms that require us to do what we do. Walk up to raise your head and look straight ahead; draw a picture from the scenery, carefully outline; always rushing, but never stopping. Life has given us a lot of rules and regulations. We always complete these so-called rules step by step. Sometimes we tend to ignore a lot. Maybe we can live in another way. We find that we have more possibilities.
This Sunday, I was fortunate to participate in the watch & wa/onder walkshop, which was initiated by the Belgian Sinta WIBOWO and the Cambodian TAN Vatey. This activity broke the routine, you don’t need to think too much, you just follow what you usually want to do but don't dare to do. You can also break through yourself and do things you never thought of. For example, on the road, you will see a very beautiful girl, but from the posture of her walking, she seems to be a blind man, you may sigh in your heart at this time, and the younger the more you are stunned, but please don't worry, the girl is just trying more possibilities
Multi-talented Vatey drew the English poster I can only write Chinese without painting talent.
The rainy season is characterized by particularly heavy rains, and the activity has changed from 13:30 to 15:00. But the rain is still falling down, so we can only hold events indoors. Sinta and Vatey are sitting on the threshold (left and middle) next to their interpreter - our beautiful Horsepen boss Carol. In this yard we moved around answering to Sinta's questions, by going to where we felt the answer.
Standing on the second floor balcony, we watch Carol move downstairs. Not looking at the paper, freely draw the movement you track with your eyes. Later, I found out that all of them are abstract painters.
We always paint with hands and pens. Sinta proposes to paint with other parts of the body. Everyone is actively involved. The chin, forehead, tongue, elbows, buttocks, etc. have become our brushes.
A small raisin is placed in the palm of your hand. It is felt through various sensory organs such as sight, smell, touch and taste. I suddenly find that it is so different. Nature gives different life different ways of existence.
We sat down in the circle and wrote on the back of the person to guess him. Different nationalities and different language environments made us make some jokes. The distance between our strangers was slowly getting closer. The two tigers in the quartet version, the music has no borders. "Two Tigers" recording version of adult version of different nationalities
The rain stopped, and we began to walk around Shaxi, closing our eyes at the ancient stage, feeling everything around us, and drawing what you felt. Sinta shook the wind chimes of the street shop for a while, and shook the leaves on the side of the road. The tricycle master seemed to know what we were doing, and drove a tricycle here and drove off. Pedestrian footsteps, wheel sounds, wind bells, sweeping sounds, and Sifang Street seem to be a little different. Hearing makes us discover the difference between Sifang Street and the visual. Formally start walking around Shaxi, starting from Sifang Street and strolling along the Nanzhai Gate.
We used two different ways to cross the two stone piers and walk along the stone piers along the way. Some people use the method of back, some people carry people, and the Hercules directly mentions people.
We walked up and raised our chests and walked forward. Today we use the reverse way to close our eyes and move backwards. First, we must go up the stairs backwards with obstacles on the road. On the way back down, we close our eyes. Everyone was very cautious on the lower steps. The unknown danger was lingering in my heart. After the safe landing, everyone laughed happily and looked back at the people who were still careful to explore the stairs.
Sinta shares the video, everyone gathers to watch, Carol translates next to it, the video tells us that there are various possibilities in life, and there is not only a single function in all parts of the body. Maybe you don't have to follow the rules of walking. You can try it in a way that you are comfortable or you want. Later, you will see the group of devils dancing and twisting all kinds of strange walking postures
After a round of laps, passing through Yujin Bridge, I saw the horse next to the Lijiang River. Without the restraint of the reins, the horses flew themselves on the road. The activity is coming to an end. We sit in the pavilion and listen to Sinta to share the reasons and significance of their walkshop. I hope that we can break through the thinking formula and try more ways, find more possibilities, and have a happy life.
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March 2018
Semarang, Indonesia
Walk where we take time to "observe" our environment, "get lost" in our ways and "imagine" what it and we all can be. Moving in different ways, we will try to unhabit our habits in the surroundings of Old Town in Semarang.