WORK / LIVE 干活 Wei Chengcheng 魏成成, Alessandro Rolandi 李山

Mirror lasts at least thirty minutes. The two performers stand facing each other and hold eye contact without ever dropping it. Each may take only one step forward and one step back, and these moves must not be voluntary or conscious: they should arise from an inner impulse generated by the exchange of glances, only when they inevitably rise within the body. Each lets the other’s gaze and movements work on him.

The exercise comes from research on subtle impulses in experimental theatre training and rests on deep listening, acceptance and receiving.

Alessandro Rolandi and Wei Chengcheng have performed it three times: in the yard of the Bernard Controls factory in Beijing, at Cache Space in Beijing’s 798 district, and at Times Museum Guangzhou in the group show Detour in Times.