"They blink for less than a heartbeat. Not reflected light, but light made within the body. Each is a message—a lure, a warning—turning darkness into a language of attraction. To see them is to witness light as instinct, a small defiance against disappearance and censorship. Illumination, then, is not only about being seen, but about sending and receiving: forming constellations of fragile connection across distance—an ethics of relation rather than exposure, a modest reciprocity rather than spectacle. It is from these small and scattered lights that this exhibition begins and ends: showing how light passes through darkness—sometimes playfully—and binds solitude and disparate voices into a horizontal weave of interconnectedness."

Written by: Cici Wu and Karen Wang

Generous support for Under Light of Moon and Sun is provided by seven anonymous donors; AV led and installed by Simon Liu with technical support from 47 Canal, Artists Space, BHKM with Bungee Space, Foreign and Domestic, Simon Liu, and João Maria Gusmão with Andrew Kreps Gallery. Curatorial support provided by the Rockbund Art Museum.

Special thanks: Sandy Ding, Empty Gallery, Elaine W. Ho, Mukaddas Mijit, Videotage, and X Zhu-Nowell.

Paramount in West's choreography is striving both for and against perfectionism. In Jawbreaker Part 1 Part 2, the divergence from precision only arrives in specific moments of respite, transition, or collapse. Gabber beats run through the entirety of the piece like an infinite metronome that perpetuates pure depletion.

Emerging from the central sculpture is a light, which stands like a lamppost or lighthouse, grounding the dancers yet producing an eerie glare that sets the bodies outside distinct time or space. The dreamlike aura is magnified and defined by a set built by CH & Herrero. The dancers in Jawbreaker Part 1 Part 2 swim in a room covered in translucent aqua plastic. The plastic encases the dancers in a box with a pressurized focus on momentum that seeks to go nowhere.

Written by: Leah Newman

Scenic Design by CH & Herrero; Performed by Cayleen Del Rosario, Benin Gardner, Amelia Heintzelman, Molly Ross, and Isa Spector; Lamp Post by Material Service: Harrison Milne and Wyatt Accardi; Costume Alterations by Kate Williams; Special thanks: Kayhl Cooper, Linda Derschang, Maggie Liu, Louisa Nolte.

Watch the video recap [here] and the full video documentation [here]

05.08.25 Sophia Giovannitti, Confession Prototype 1, On Having "a Lot of Heart"_ in conversation with practicing psychoanalyst and academic Avgi Saketopoulou, moderated by Rachel Ossip, Deputy Editor at Triple Canopy. The discussion draws on the speaker's work around erotics, ethics, cost, and consent, and is the first episode of our 5x5 series, in conversation with practicing psychoanalyst and academic Avgi Saketopoulou, moderated by Rachel Ossip, Deputy Editor at Triple Canopy.

05.22.25 - Simon Liu, SHOCK STUDIES_a new expanded cinema performance featuring an intricate network of analogue projection, handmade electronics, live sound, and reflective materials, the work examined the problematics of nostalgia, representations of prohibited spaces, and the boundaries of control within an increasingly automated world. The performance was followed by a conversation with artist Tiffany Sia.

06.06.25 KJ Abudu & Adam Hajyahia, Combat Breathing: Aesthetics of Agitation_featuring works by Harun Farocki, Alaa Mansour, Tiffany Sia and Not Channel Zero, a video series by Black Planet Productions, the screenings were then followed by conversation between the curators, moderated by Omar Berrada, where the speakers explored contemporary art as a form of anti-imperial counter-propaganda in response to the failures of neoliberalism and the rise of fascist media ecologies.

06.17.25 - Alexandra Tatarsky & Nile Harris, Cold Reading_shared experiments composed from diaristic digital communications from the past few years. From IG close friends posts to private emails and notes, the writings navigate varying registers from the mundane to the manic sublime and humorously shameful. The evening culminates in a cold reading of an artist "Talk Back" scripted by poet and playwright Peter PD, underscored by Shane Riley.

07.24.25 - Savanah Leaf, RUN + RUN 002_ following the screening, a conversation with choreographer Kyle Abraham, and curator Habiba Hopson. Two single-channel videos functioning as a self-portrait that explores the physicality of the Black female form. Starring the artist herself, William Richards and Willem Dafoe, the short film series was previously exhibited at Hauser & Wirth, Los Angeles and SFMoMA.

05.07.24 Nile Harris, minor a_ The series opens with minor a, a very minor unfinished performance by Nile Harris, curated by Kyla Gordon, while in residence at 99CANAL. With special guests Kwami Winfield, Ley Gambucci and Jonah Rollins, this can be understood as a very first iteration of his larger installation at the Shed in early August.

05.08.24 Fana Fraser, Autogamy_ A performance curated by Habiba Hopson, Autogamy explores themes of self-fertilization and transformation, drawing from goddess and mother archetypes. Fraser's work uses sound and movement to delve into fertility, love, and divinity, and aims to embody the nurturing essence of self-creation. The performance is inspired by botanical reproductive processes and seeks to remind both artist and audience of their innate potential for growth and nourishment.

05.09.24 Alvin Tran, Murder on Canal St_ A performance curated by Jeanette Bisschops, this work reflects on the intersection of physical and digital experiences. The piece captures both our cultural moment and the feeling of transitioning into adulthood in the internet generation, fusing elements of pop and post-modern dance with a focus on online behaviors and societal disconnection. Tran's choreography and eclectic musical choices create a tension between familiar and innovative movement, questioning how we navigate and make sense of our experiences in a digitally mediated world.

05.10.24 Raymond Pinto, effigy: a shifting landscape_ A performance curated by Diallo Simon Ponte, the piece emphasizes the importance of listening to and remembering the terrain we inhabit, integrating themes of displacement and ancestral ties, inviting the audience to reflect on their connection to earth and memory. Pinto's work encourages a deep, immersive engagement with the environment, highlighting the intimate relationship between humanity and the natural world.

05.11.24 Kevin Peter He & Jake Oleson, Flux_ curated by Emma Stern, FLUX features a humanoid figure navigating a virtual landscape, with movements derived from motion capture and real-time manipulation of the virtual environment. Combining virtual and live performance, it questions the nature of presence and perception in a technologically mediated age. Kevin and Jake's work challenges traditional cinematic processes with a focus on live, immersive experiences.

Animal Farm entices the observer on a visual odyssey exalted by pastoral solace, animist minstrelsy and metaphysical riddles – ghosts, ghouls and goblins – offering fleeting glimpses of an alterity existing between techne and poiesis, the human and the non-human, the nocturnal and the diurnal. Through over a dozen new 16 mm film projections we are invited to explore the latest toils in a long-lasting inquiry into analogue means and analogue concepts. A journey towards an eco-friendly estrangement from the extractivist rural landscape.
For this venture, the Portuguese artist suggests a distinctive approach to engaging with his craft, molding the instances of aesthetic contemplation and anchoring them to the circadian cadence of the metropolis. It is solely under the fading rays of the city that never sleeps that the 16 mm projections come alive, revealing the radiant entities that inhabit them. It is, if you will, an exhibition for night owls, creatures of the dark and vespertine folk.

“Forward, comrades! Long live the windmill! Long live Animal Farm!”
-George Orwell.

02.28.23 Heather McCalden, Easy Listening_ explores methods of legibility and communication, though framed through scientific narratives around movement. Formally, riffing on Bruce Nauman's work Walking in an Exaggerated Manner Around the Perimeter of a Square, McCalden asked: "whether the languages we apply to the physical world can effectively express our embodied, emotional experience."

02.29.23 Alexa West, Department of Aging_ often exploring networked systems of labor and human behavior, The Department of Aging relied on the city's public service departments. In the performance, dancers Jade Manns and Gwendolyn Knapp interacted with three filing cabinets sourced from the city's "Department of Aging"; Much like this department addresses issues of care for aging citizens, West's performance considered the threshold of productivity and what we deem a useful body.

03.01.23 Agnes Questionmark, Attempt II_ recent developments in DNA research and gene editing technology trouble an easy understanding of a discrete human body. In Attempt II, the artist imagined an experiment to create a new species and suggested through an iterative title that this performance is part of a series of trials. Twelve performers lay on the floor as experimental subjects in cadaver bags resembling embryonic sacs. Their promise of a rebirth into a new species was foreshadowed by imminent death. The subject's life depended on their umbilical connection to the bag, a body rooted in technological innovation or collapse.

03.02.23 Tianyi Sun & Fiel Guhit, Visible_Devices_ Intertwined with an AI bot in a feedback loop that, at points, led to conversation and, at other moments, interruption, Tianyi Sun's voice, traversed the room. Fiel Guhit, an artist and software engineer, managed the AI input, giving an electronic voice to the input data points and the sculptural assemblages around the room. The network of cables and readers provided a body for the AI system, a partner for Sun, and a conduit between her and Guhit that both simulated and inverted how innovation has distanced the human experience.

03.03.23 Louis Osmosis, Balconisms: A small filibuster on bursting the fill_ Whereas Sun's soliloquy was mirrored by the AI system, in Louis Osmosis "Balconisms: A small filibuster on bursting the fill"; his monologue was met without a partner response. He reported on his surroundings to the audience live from an unknown location. He was only made visible through a walkie-talkie on a pedestal that operated as a stand-in for his body. While this technology connected him with the audience, the signal was fragile. Several times in the performance, the audience approached the pedestal and turned the volume up only to disrupt the signal and make Louis entirely unintelligible.

Dear Reader,

Allow me, at the outset, to clarify what the title of this exhibition/screening stands for. The Hungarian idiom —annyit ér, mint halottnak a csók— literally translates into: worth as much as a kiss to a dead man. However, the figurative meaning conveys that something is not worth a whoop, not worth the effort, worthless...

The project is, at first glance, no more than a small appetizer addressing the practices of certain figures (artists and non-art artists) of the (so-called) Hungarian Neo Avant-Garde . Yet, just as in the title, the symbiosis or lack thereof between a figurative and a literal interpretation of the pieces, and of the project as a whole, brings forth resources capable of de-constructing dichotomies, building, in turn, nuances.

As a result of such frictions — frictions that can expand the interpretive abilities of a viewer — this project means — once more like the title — not one thing or the other, but both, none, or a number of them.

It is a collection of images and actions against value (worthless). It is an implicit and heartfelt nod to my late father (a kiss if you will). It is not worth the effort. It is an iniciatic rite that invokes the spirit of a bygone time and space. A serious matter. A joke. A collection of pastimes "for killing boredom [...] turning away from active-constructive activity, and, thus, facilitating the politics of subversive decentralization." [1] A bomb targeting the status quo. A journey through time. A Poetic gesture. A game of Kalah. A system of proportions. A conversation.

With love, Marco Bene.

[1] These are some of the words written by an informant of the Hungarian secret police (codename: Mészáros) after witnessing the first happening in Hungary: The Lunch (in memoriam Batu Khan), 1966; organised by Gábor Altorjay and Tamás Szentjóby (codename: Schwitters), with the cooperation of Miklós Jankovics and István Varannai; and the help of Enikő Balla, Miklós Erdély, and Csaba Koncz.

Source: LINK