Finally, after nearly 60 or so days of travel that brought me to Italy, Thailand, and the USA, I have concluded my travels for the year. It ended with a visit to Hong Kong to meet Danny Yung 榮念曾 and Zuni Icosahedron. Two monumental entities in Hong Kong and Asian arts.
Frankly, I was quite intimidated with the thought of conversing with Danny. First of all, in my research, it wasn’t easy finding materials in English, but there was ample information in Traditional Chinese. It takes me a really long time to read simplified characters, let alone traditional characters. Second, the people who encouraged me to meet Danny had tremendous respect for him.
It took 6 months of planning, of miscommunications and a last minute change in schedule. Initially, I could have spent a little more than a month following the staging of The Trial. It was three part piece. Hong Kong is not a cheap place for accommodations and staying for a month would mean a big chunk of the Directors’ Lab funds would be taken. So I could only follow the last installment, The Trial: Contempt. It worked out well I think, considering how busy Danny was, and that I could accept the Country Directing Country project.
Zuni Icosahedron needs little introduction, and I’d rather point you to this page for their own words. When I arrived, the company was in the middle of producing Architecture is Art Festival 2013 , the tail end of its 2013 season Power of the Avant Garde. An exhibit of Danny’s more than 30 years of experimental works (manuscripts, photos etc) had just concluded. It was to celebrate Danny’s 70th birthday.
I rummaged through Zuni Icosahedron’s video archive, met Jacky Chan (the Company Manager not the action movie star) and a lot of other Zuni staff. I got to see The Trial: Contempt, and Matthias Woo’s Tale of A Forbidden City and A LOT of Hong Kong. Best of all, I had two great conversations with Danny.
That was a very quick overview. More to come.
Tan Shou Chen 