Experience 12 Hours of "Endurance" Art at Pi Bar this Saturday

Earlier this month, an eclectic group of musicians, dancers, ritual leaders, and installation artists descended on Aotu Space for a six-hour endurance performance that plunged the venue’s White Cube into an ethereal wonderland of sensorial bliss. The event, dubbed Un-Full-Ish Moon, was organized by a multi-media syndicate known only as “Cohort,” and was a follow-up to a five-hour performance that took place at Capsule Image Lab on Wudaoying back in April. Now, the group is doubling down on their efforts, as well as their ambitions, and launching a 12-hour endurance performance at Pi Bar this Saturday, Oct 30, under the banner Savage Moon.

Billed as a show that “liberates neurotic forces from repressed corners” by inviting the audience to “enter the liminal... [m]oments between dreaming and waking, life and death, a psychic purgatory,” Savage Moon will feature a diverse lineup of characters including designer Felipe Esparza, dancer Nono, self-styled exorcist INKO, wind and percussionist Hua Jia, filmmaker QWERTY, poets Alexis Murakami and James Holt, DJ Fluxware, cosmic musician Eryang, trance inducer and multi-instrumentalist Justin Howell, and multimedia producer Daniel Finn, all of whom will be weaving together an unprecedented tapestry of conjuring and creation between the hours of 6pm and 6am.

So what exactly would possess someone to willingly take on the daunting task of performing for the better part of 12 hours? Well, according to “Cohort” member and performance artist Joshua Kinney, the “significance of the duration of this 12-hour show is for launching six hours of ‘still movement’ followed by six hours of ‘moving stillness.’”

Kinney elaborates: “As a half-animal type of character I like going into stillness. That is extended periods of non-movement replicating hibernation or the cat waiting to pounce. On Oct 6, which was the day after our last ‘Cohort’ endurance art show at Aotu Space, I got to dance. Dancing is something I like very much, but that time it was more intense. So I got into this idea for being off and on. For having outward stillness but inward movement while contemplatively squatting in a barrel juxtaposed by outward movement and inward stillness while trancing at a club.”

It’s a process that will manifestly blur the lines between chaos and order, madness and meditation. One which requires resolute discipline and engagement from both the performer and the audience. Asked how he mentally prepares for something like this, Kinney demurely responds, “does a magician reveal his tricks?”    

Savage Moon by “Cohort” will take place from 6pm to 6am at Pi Bar, Oct 30. Pre-sale tickets can be purchased for RMB 60 by scanning the QR code on the poster above, or for RMB 80 at the door. For more information, click here.

READ: Dada Rises From the Ashes in New Ritan Digs

Images courtesy of "Cohort" and Joshua Kinney