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.