Embodying Nature in Braunschweig is a three week collaborative performance project between Yingmei Duan and Johannes Zits that will culminate in a final performance. For this work, they shall be using their bodies to communicate and investigate relationships between themselves and nature.
Initiated by Johannes Zits, Embodying Nature (like a great deal of his work for the years) focuses on the cultural and social forces that act upon the body. In Braunschweig, Duan and Zits will be creating work that is based on their interaction and will address some of their attitudes towards “nature”. The performance aims to extend the notion of the performer from their own bodies, to include the ‘body’ of nature itself. Considering nature as a body and as a participant ensures it cannot be construed as a passive prop or backdrop; nor adored and fixed in the realm of the sublime.
Born in China, Yingmei Duan is part of the Chinese avant-garde, and lived in the legendary art district of Beijing’s East Village. Since 2000 she became a pure performance artist under the influence of Marina Abramović. Collaboration has been a very important part of her practice since she worked with Christoph Schlingensief in 2006. Her artworks are works in progress, which are often stretched over long periods of time. As a performance artist and researcher she has developed her works in relation to different area of society. She has exhibited widely around the world.