An old legend of the indigenous Truku tribe in Taiwan tells of a hunter who was surprised by a sudden downpour while hunting. Thehunter found shelter in a tree hollow and fell into a deep sleep. In his dream, he encountered a group of fluid spirits, neither malenor female, who called themselves «Hagay». They imparted knowledge of rituals, hunting and weaving to the hunter. The hunter woke up, went back to his village and shared the Hagay’s knowledge with his fellow men.

Multimedia artist Shu Lea Cheang and Dondon Hounwn, artist and practising shaman of the Truku tribe, have created an artificial universe based on this partly traditional, partly invented narrative. In three different formats – a performance, a textile installation and a multimedia exhibition – the two collaborators explore the connections between queer lifestyles, shamanism and contemporary technology.

Biographies

Shu Lea Cheang (France/USA/TW)
Shu Lea Cheang is an artist and filmmaker who engages in genre bending gender hacking art practices. Celebrated as a net art pioneer with BRANDON (1998 – 99), the first web art commissioned and collected by Guggenheim Museum, New York, Cheang represented Taiwan with mixed media installation, 3x3x6, at Venice Biennale 2019. Crafting her own genre of Scifi New Queer Cinema, she has made 4 feature films, FRESH KILL(1994), I.K.U. (2000), FLUIDø (2017) and UKI (2023). In 2024, she receives the LG Guggenheim Art and Technology Award. In early 2025, she will direct a theatre performance Hagay Dreaming at Tate Modern and an exhibition KI$$ KI$$ at Haus der Kunst in Munich. http://mauvaiscontact.info

Dondon Hounwn (Taiwan)
Truku artist Dondon Hounwn was born in the Dowmung tribe in Xiulin Township, Hualien County, Taiwan. Dondon Hounwn’s work cuts across media, generational and cultural lines, blending ancestral knowledge with avant-garde, cross-gender aesthetics. An inheritor of tribal ballads, instruments and rituals, he works in performance, installation, video and environmental theatre. In 2015, Dondon Hounwn founded Elug Art Corner where the indigenous youths research Truku cultural heritage. Since 2023, Dondon Hounwn holds annual GAYA Cosmos gathering with artists and researchers in exploring Gaya living principles.

Credits

Artistic Director｜Dondon Hounwn
Singer｜Kumu Basaw
Performers | Dondon Hounwn, Pilaw Uraw, Dremedreman・Ljaculjingiljing, Kiyu Pahauran
Installation artist | Temu Basaw
Laser artist | aka_chang

Administration｜Cheng Hsuan Weng
Coordination｜Hsin Yu Hsieh

Project Director｜Shu Lea Cheang
Producer｜Ping Yi Chen

Production｜Elug Art Corner
Organizer｜Zürcher Theater Spektakel & Shedhalle

Sponsors ｜
National Culture and Arts Foundation (Taiwan)
Ministry of Culture (Taiwan)
Indigenous Peoples Cultural Foundation (Taiwan)
NSFG Foundation
RELIABLE SOURCE INDUSTRIAL
Puyong Archiland
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Hagay Dreaming Performance

with Dondon Hounwn & Elug Art Corner

23./24./25.08., 20:30-22h

Landiwiese & Shedhalle – tickets here

The result of the project’s connections can be experienced in a particularly immersive and sensual way in the Zurich adaptation of the performance «Living Gaya Dreaming Hagay», developed together with Shedhalle and Theaterspektakel. Futuristic laser choreographies combine with shamanistic dances, and genderfluid bodies merge with animated video images far removed from mortal categories. This is techno-shamanism and the Gaia principle: a musical journey to the diversity of the sexes in their primordial state. A visually powerful renunciation of a binary world view and a vision of a non-binary, indigenous techno future.

An intimate performance with a prelude and 5 acts

Duration: 1:30 h, no break

Note: The performance starts with a ritual at the Zürcher Theater Spektakel site (Landiwiese) and a 20-minute-walk to Shedhalle. The audience moves freely in the space. Laser light is used.

Hagay Cave

Installation by Temu Basaw

23.8. 15-17h, 24. & 25.8. 14-17h

Landiwiese – free entry

The cave installation titled “The Reappearing of Ever-Changing Dwelling” is an intertwined structure with its wood planks intersecting each other, inviting the public members to step inside.

Guests can donate old jumpers, echoing a 50s and 60s practice where Taiwanese indigenous communities repurposed gifted jumpers into traditional garments. The young performers share the weaving skills with traditional weaving tools while recounting tales and legends, chanting ballads and interacting with the visitors, crossing cultural and gender boundaries.

Hagay Exhibition

by Dondon Hounwn & Elug Art Corner

23./24.08. 22-23h & 28./29./30.08. 17-20h & 31.08./01.09. 15-19h

Shedhalle – admission at the venue, sliding scale

The exhibition traces and continues the process of the performance «Hagay Dreaming». On show will be a three channel installation «Hagay» (2013, Collection of Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts) by Dondon Hounwn, as well as video documentations of Hagay Dreaming’s previous performances. The «Hagay Exhibition» can be seen until the end of the festival and marks the transition to the next process-based exhibition of Shedhalle this autumn, ProtoZone16: Hallucinogenesis.

Stammtisch: Non-binary indigenous techno future

with Shu Lea Cheang & Dondon Hounwn

21.08., 21h

Landiwiese

Shu Lea Cheang and Dondon Hounwn discuss this summer’s European tour of «Living Gaya Dreaming Hagay» which is a fork out of their theatrical performance collaboration «Hagay Dreaming». Between indigenous storytelling and techno-futuristic fantasies, their work celebrates gender fluid Hagay and advocates Gaya living principle to reclaim ‘snhiyi’ , a power of total trust.

Concert

by WAT TAKLAEW

– at 20:00 (40mins)

WAT TAKLAEW aka Valentina D. Jitsattayakul (1989, Zurich) is an artist and musician. She studied Sociology and Social Anthropology before completing her Master in Fine Arts at HEAD Geneva. Her cross-media works, some of which are created from found objects, explore the tensions between systemic capitalist structures and marginalization, and their relationship to post-migrant identities and spiritual belief systems. Musically, she creates textures with an emphasis on experimental music, combining elements of feedback, tape, field recordings, and various Thai folk instruments.

Drawing inspiration from Thai heritage, the artist’s name holds significance as ‚wat‘ translates to ‘temple‘, symbolizing a spiritual connection to the craft. Additionally, ’thakleaw’ derives from a Thai boy name, associated with the concept of militancy.

The debut release ‘Pillars of the Apex,’ on the Zurich-based label Webarchive, takes listeners on a journey of introspection and ethereal exploration. Each track unfolds like a chapter in a story, inviting listeners to explore the depths of their own imagination and delve into the realms of mystical beings.

Fairplay
by Sarai Rose Duke

– from 18:00

all night long, until the dough is gone

Sarai Rose Duke, a German artist, specializes in object-based and edible artworks. Her piece “Fairplay” (2024) demonstrates the principles of reciprocity and solidarity. Through an interactive performance centered on the creation of filled pasta, Duke engages visitors and consumers in a dynamic cycle of participation and exchange. This work not only explores the materiality of food but also underscores the communal and reciprocal nature of shared culinary experiences, cultivating a sense of connection and mutual support among participants.

Solar Capital (2024)

by Hugo de Almeida Pinho

– 18-01:00 (16mins, looping)

Solar Capital is based on the complexities of solar capitalism, its different implications on critical realities and certain politics of visibility and invisibility that shape our historical, iconographic and symbolic relationship with the sun star. Condemning a form of heliocentrism that develops procedures of marginality, appropriation and invisibility involved in ecological politics under the sign of the capitolocene, this film creates a parallel between contemporary forms of connection between humans, energy, technology and the sun.

18:00 – 23:00

Fairplay – cooking & eating pasta in solidarity

with Sarai Rose Duke

20:00

Concert with experimental music

by WAT TAKLAEW

18:00 – 01:00

Solar Capital (2024), video screening (16min)
by Hugo de Almeida Pinho

August 1st will once again be a day of queer solidarity. This is in light of the ongoing attacks on the rights of queer people and the political questioning of queer identities and lifestyles. LGBTQIA+ rights are human rights!

Be there and take part in various workshops, inform yourself and network with other members of the local and inter/national LGBTQIA+ community or celebrate with us all day to spicy dance music on the lakeshore. Feasting, cuddling and swimming are of course included 💦

14-22h – Workshops, DJ sets, exchange, food, exhibition, bar and much more

22h-1h – After-hour with performances, sounds and drinks

We’re really looking forward to seeing you! Let’s celebrate Queer Bay Day together. 🌈❤️

Registration and more information about the workshops of QueerNest and Kinky Queer Stammtisch is possible via: https://eventfrog.ch/queerbayday

In case of rain, the QBD will take place in Clubraum Rote Fabrik.

The inner courtyard, Clubraum, Backstein, Shedhalle and lakeside path are wheelchair accessible. Unfortunately, access to the lake is not barrier-free. However, we are happy to help with access. If you need support or have any questions, please contact us in advance via queer.bay.day@gmail.com or speak to us on site.

Queer Bay Day is initiated by Clubbüro IG Rote Fabrik and Shedhalle and SLOCH. It is organized in collaboration with LGBTQIA+ initiatives from Zurich and Switzerland. After-hour in collaboration with Toxi. The event is non-commercial and independent of sponsors.

All proceeds from Queer Bay Day will be donated to queer organizations that work internationally and especially in crisis areas for LGBTQIA+ people and their rights.

DJ-Sets

Workshops & Wellness

tbd: Saturne (sensual initiation) and Aga (Astro-Chart-Readings), & Soli-Haircuts by André

*to sign up and for voluntary donations visit: https://eventfrog.ch/queerbayday

Info & Donations

14-20/22h Info stands and fundraising activities by INAYA, LGBTQIA+ Support Group, Aro-Ace Spektrum Schweiz, Trans Safety Emergency Fund and Milchjugend – with solidarity snacks, crafts and cakes and milkshakes, anti-capitalist CSD info stand and cake

Speeches, Showings, Performances & After-Hour

Protozone12: Syncretic Sites (Sept-Nov 23) negotiated a syncretic understanding of the world at the same time as the renewed outbreak of brutal violence in Israel and Palestine. The text of ‘Syncretic Sites’ states that “a syncretic understanding opens up the world to its multiplicity and density. Thus, what is stacked on top of each other, entangled in each other and fused with each other does not create one singular world, but worlds of coexistence – in the plural.” In times of affective states of emergency, polarization occurs to a point where it becomes almost impossible to maintain complexity.

PS: Syncretic Sites is dedicated to cautious zones of coming together in the same space as a counterpoint and complement to the confrontation with current events through media channels and news services. In addition to shared words, thoughts and concerns, it is about embodied practices and neighborliness in the presence of each other.

The Syncretic Sites exhibition was about expanded ways of listening, among other things. We build on this and propose to meet each other in appreciative listening, speaking and focusing on the co-existence of different perspectives and interests in the same space. What needs are in the room? What options to act?

PS: Syncretic Sites is aimed at the cultural field (artists, freelancers and employees in institutions) as well as an interested public. We work with communication support, conversation scores and embodied practices.

Communal Dreaming with Chris Paxton

Eine solastalgische Koch- und Hörperformance

Solastalgia is a neologism, formed by the combination of the Latin word sōlācium (comfort, ease, solace) and the Greek root -algia (pain, suffering, grief), to describe a form of emotional or existential distress caused by environmental changes. The term was coined in 2005 by philosopher Glenn Albrecht, who described it as “the homesickness you have when you are still at home.” How do we experience comfort or pain together on a disappearing planet? Can we dream the future through the darkness of our present? What sonic ecologies can we bring to life by listening and dreaming collectively? Let’s stew on this together for a while…

A vegetable curry, perhaps a prime example of comfort food, will be prepared collectively with the ingredients and tools we have at hand as we share our feelings, desires and dreams for a disappearing Earth. Participants are invited to contribute to a soundscape while preparing the meal together. Sonic contributions can take the form of a poem, a dream, a text, or otherwise, so long that it resonates with the question: Now, what are our dreams for Earth?

Come as you are. All are invited to cook, share and listen. Silence is welcomed.

Chris Paxton

Berlin-based culinary artist Chris Paxton, host of the seasonal artist dinner-listening event Dreams at Kwia, also co-founded Lucky You Studios, curating unique dining experiences for clients such as Highsnobiety and Resident Advisor. As chef-in-residence at Nuova Atlantide in 2023, he explored movement, language, and landscape. His work, featured in Planetary Embodiments, includes “Recipes in Ruins,” a collaboration with Maia Magoga, blending magical recipes with dreams for the future. Chris’s immersive culinary art, rooted in cyclical time and local specificity, fosters collective visions through shared meals that transcend the table. His work challenges environmental (dis)connections and confronts the haunting of food cultures by capitalist and colonial histories. In a collaborative dreamscape, Chris weaves sound and food, proposing a culmination of desires expressed through commensality, collaboration, and listening.

Belia Winnewisser

Producer and DJ Belia Winnewisser lives and works in Zurich.
For the completion of her studies in music and media art Belia tried to combine sound art and pop music in her work. With her first album Radikale Akzeptanz,
released by Präsens Editionen, she succeeded in doing just that. In addition, the release gave her an international perception. On July 2nd 2021 Belia’s second album SODA appeared likewise on Präsens Editionen. With this album, the artist marked another milestone in her solo career and she solidified her approach to
sound production. The media response to the release showed that Winnewisser had not only found her own way with it, but also an exciting one. A year later the
EP Mother Earth Took Poison In Her Soil was released on the Frankfurt label Die Orakel which presented Belia’s refreshing approach to club music.
Besides her work as a producer, Belia is resident DJ at Kapitel Bollwerk in Bern and enjoys various bookings. Belia’s DJ sets are bursting with energy and emotion and are characterised by her sense of rhythm and tension.

Contemporary Queer Chinese Art is the first English-language academic book that explores the intersections of queer culture and contemporary Chinese art from the mid-1980s to the present. This book brings together 17 internationally renowned artists, activists, curators and scholars to explore heterogeneous expressions of Chineseness and queerness in contemporary art from China and Chinese diasporas in Asia, Europe and North America.

Examining contemporary visual art, performance and activism, this book offers a rich archive of queer Chinese artistic expressions. It provides valuable insights into the status quo and intersectional struggles of Chinese artists who identify themselves as queer and who have associated their work with queer positionalities and perspectives. By sharing personal experiences, art expressions and critical insights about what it means to be queer and Chinese in a transnational context, the book reveals multiple forms and potentialities of queer politics in the domains of art and activism.

Monday 27.11.23

19:00 – Door Open & Apero

20:00 – meet Diyi Mergenthaler, co-editor of Contemporary Queer Chinese Art and doctoral student in art history at the UZH

20:35 – artist duo Ziwei Huang & Yumo Cheng talk about their queer art performance The Grand Gay Wedding, screening of trailer of their new performance Little Whore House de Chinois at Porny Days

21:15 – conversations with art historian Daniel Berndt x Diyi x Yumo x Ziwei