Isaac Chong Wai delves into research around performance, dance, video, and creating objects with diverse media. In Falling Reversely (2021–2024) Chong Wai deepens his research into acts of violence committed not only against the many Asian migrant communities – and especially those of Chinese descent – in Europe and abroad, but also in attacks made against queer individuals. Taking as its starting point an attack made on Chong Wai near a scaffold, the installation has a sculptural character that refers to civil construction. Attached to its structure is a series of videos showing the artist and a group of dancers reacting to the act of a body falling in front of a community. How do you respond to this fall? Would it be possible to prevent it or at least try to break the fall to reduce the physical pain? Between the choreography and the spontaneous act, Chong Wai suggests that the individual and the collective mix in a single movement. We, as spectators, are also agents capable of both avoiding future falls and longing for the care of our friends.
This is the first time the work of Isaac Chong Wai is presented at Biennale Arte.
—Raphael Fonseca
