/ Break & Break!

—— The present forum is an artwork's introduction of the video collection 《Last Words》 ——






Break & Break! originally arose from many dance videos taken by Chou between 2014 and 2017 in different places. He has traveled to unfamiliar cities, interviewing strangers, wandering between city centers and outskirts. To search for the lost – what used to exist there – he used his body to perceive and respond to both derelict and functional sites. To record the passing – the disappearing sceneries – he preserved their memories in the dance video.
“Image” is the key medium. Choosing what to capture in the film is always a man’s conscious decision. It reflects a man’s perception of the transient time, his awareness, or powerlessness, to withstand the vicissitudes of changes. Then, from this forlorn angle he might notice certain unusual strengths, persisting from being something to being nothing, and from loss to rebirth.

Throughout the years Break & Break! has taken the audience to many distinct places, confronting different abandoned industries: from Polymer, a disused textile mill in Beitou, to Son Veng, a decaying shipyard in Macao, to Jinguashi, a mineral mountain wrapped in bygone glory. Connecting the “break” phase in life and the “break” status of a place, building dialogues, the artists who bear the memories and emotions evoked by a space are making poetry with their bodies.

Let’s encounter the transitory fragments of stories, once again.