The place where I was living is quite dry, there is also a dry river (Shiyang He River) in that place. I still remember that when my family went to our city center when I was a child, we needed to pass that bridge. Under the bridge, there was a dry riverbed covered with many stones. I often asked my parents what it looked like when they were young. They have not many ideas of that as both of them actually did not have many connections with that river. They come from different places and when they decided to live in this city, that city has already changed a lot. But now, my home is close to that bridge and that river which has become a new river with water from a mountain’s snow. The mountain is called Qilian Shan.
I also remember that when I was a child, I often dreamt of that dry river and imaged how it looked like because I seldom see a real river in my living area.

When I lived in a village, I could often see this huge mountain. One day, when we had a class, I told my teacher that I wanted to try to walk to the mountain because this mountain looks so close to our village. My classmates were laughing and my teacher told me it was impossible. It was true. Even though this mountain looks so close to our village, it is so huge and far away from our place. I can not use my feet to reach that mountain. In the past, I often dreamed of this mountain, but now, I don't dream of it any more.

My grandma has a sad story about her mother’s death. My grandma grew up in another area in China. The yellow river will pass her living place. At that time, if they wanted to go to another village, they needed to pass the yellow river. But the Yellow river is not a peaceful river. It was very dangerous for them to take the boat to cross this river. However, after the rain season, a part of this river would be dry and lower, so they could walk in the riverbed to go to that village. One day, when her mother was walking in the riverbed, suddenly, this river rose at high tide. Her mother disappeared in the river. After that, she left that place.
I still remember a Chinese novel named Mother is a Dry riverbed. The novel's content is not so great, but the title gave me a deep impression about rivers and riverbeds.

I am not sure about each of us' connections with the river specifically, but I do believe there is something flowing during our talk about dreams and the river. River is soft, but also strong. Constant dripping wears away the stone. This is a translation sentence from Chinese to describe the water’s strength.

The river itself is also like a dream, like poetry. The light, the sound, the grass, stones and biology under the river. It sometimes looks unreal, but it has quite a strong relationship with human’s living. River as a border makes me feel more powerful and stronger. And also let me feel more about our own story.

Tao te Ching 78 by Lao-tzu

Nothing in the world
is as soft and yielding as water.
Yet for dissolving the hard and inflexible,
nothing can surpass it.

The soft overcomes the hard;
the gentle overcomes the rigid.
Everyone knows this is true,
but few can put it into practice.

Therefore the Master remains
serene in the midst of sorrow.
Evil cannot enter his heart.
Because he has given up helping,
he is people’s greatest help.

True words seem paradoxical.

" No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it's not the same river and he's not the same man. "
- Heraclitus


The river is never the same
In a way it is a metaphor for time
Time as movement, movement as flow
The river suggests constant renewal
Constant change
When I created my piece 'Timing is Divine' it came from my desire to express the unfolding of change in the moment
The performance itself mimicked the language of ritual
The creation process of this piece also became a ritual for myself, as I, through it, experienced personal transformation
It made me feel calm, strong and sensitive all at once
At peace with pace, with the unfolding of change
About 9 months before creating this piece, during an obsessive phase, I wrote down 'Timing is divine - guys don't get it' as a reaction towards something that could potentially have grown to become a deep connection
But he did not want to "take a leap"
His silence suggested that he just "didn't feel it"
But I know he did
I know he did
But change can be so extreme, so unyielding
We need methods to deal with it
But when the element of chance is seen solely as risk
Methods to eliminate change is instead put in place
I was disappointed although not surprised
I wrote down "I know he wanted me but more so he wanted control"
Call me crazy
I am often othered for my feelings
I am change
Truth is everything has potential
Seeing this truth makes it relentless
Places us in direct relation to the universe
Makes us feel how the universe is inside of us
Makes us feel an origin

The river runs within us
Emotions speak an unspeakable language
Emit the unspeakable
The saltwater of our tears suggest
A flowing back to the origin
The sea as the creator
Of what eventually came to be this embodied experience
Timing is divine because nothing is ever the same
Trying to control the flow, we forget that timing is divine
The feeling is connected to the rhythm of everything
Because the planet rotates
The water is pulled back and forth by the moon
The day and night
The way we breathe
Our hearts beat
Rhythm is time
Rhythm is life

As above, so below
To understand the microcosm and macrocosm as one of the same
Planets are in constant movement
Sometimes they are far apart
Sometimes they align
Like us humans
Sometimes we meet, and we are invited to flow together
Denying this, and change cannot occur
What occurs then? We miss the train
What occurs then?
We lose the flow of life
What occurs then?
Death

Intuition is mathematics
The number pi is infinte
Uncontrollable therefore
As it should be

Pi is the answer
Yet pi is a mystery

Another metaphor for time, is stone
Stone is a metaphor for deep time
What suggests even deeper time than stone?
Sand
Broken stone
A seeming infinity of pieces of stone
Form deserts that look like frozen waves
Pieces of the past
Forming the riverbed
The water that flows on top
The nature of things

In the dream we were on our way somewhere
It was night
We were 3 or 4 women
We were on some mission
Maybe we were escaping to somewhere
There was a sense of urgency
The river seemed luminous in comparison to the dark surroundings
Maybe it was reflecting the light of stars or the moon
We had to cross the river, but there was no bridge
The way we dealt with this, was by flowing with the river as we crossed
To not go against it
But to submit to it
The sense of urgency suggested that there was no option of returning back
Our plan was to reach the other side of the river
Instead we ended up floating on top of it
Towards somewhere unknown

I think about that Japanese scientist, masaru emoto, who dedicated his whole life to researching water
I was told this was because he nearly drowned one time when he was young
But his mother had taught him that one should not go against the waves
Instead one should listen to the waves and flow with them
Become one with them
He survived and transformed from this experience

≈ RIVER
≈ MOUNTAIN
≈ DESERT

while tensions between nations are increasing, the planet is slowly desertifying

How do we experience memories of our “homeland”* through environments? What can the nature around us teach us about the times and changes that humans are presently, but perhaps also habitually, undergoing?

Using Taoist principles, we will base this performance on the semiotic language that can be read as intrinsic in Chinese nature, with a primary focus on the image of the mountain, the desert and the river - as represented through the raw materials of stone, sand and water. These materials carry in them three symbols for time; the water as the constant movement of change, the stone as representing old age, and finally sand suggesting deep and inconceivable time - what we might even refer to as ‘infinity’.

*homeland - in this case thought of as the place where we grew up and first formed a bond with our habitats, as well as the type of ecology we identify as “home”.

≈ VIDA VOJIĆ

Vida Vojić aka vida voyage, is a music artist, percussionist, musician, writer and performance artist from Gothenburg, Sweden.

Her current work focuses on drumming as a means of amplifying input, triggering physical vibrations and awakening alternative states. This accompanies her vocal, scenographic and poetic expressions that draw on her research into mystical theology, music as magic, alternative conceptions of time and the nature of change.

≈ Shuyi Gao

Gao Shuyi is an interdisciplinary performance artist from China based in London, who delves into the exploration of the human body and sensations within the resonance of objects and spaces.

Her artistry is rooted in body art, performance art, and site-specific performances, where she employs her craft as a medium to examine the ephemeral nature of existence.