Description:

In this expanded cinema performance, travelogues and memories—traversing time
and space, to and from Tibet—are interwoven.
Through text, researcher-writer Alexandra David-Néel’s journey across the
Himalayas a century ago unfolds via her letters home—seeking answers in a world
fractured by colonial entanglements, wars, and human ferocity.
In cinematic space, filmmaker Yi Cui’s experiences in eastern Tibet are reflected
through her own lens and those of native Tibetans. What begins through her
encounter with a legendary school in the region gradually turns into an elegy—as
violence eclipses “history”, yet fails to erase memory.
In conversation with the screen, the live performance channels the journey of a
Tibetan, Tsering Topgyal, who fled his homeland as a child during China’s
occupation, migrating through India, Nepal, and America. Stirred by the
resonances of text and image, Tsering improvises—his voice, body and objects
become vessels of memories and a dialogue with the idea of home.
Through this weaving of media, the performance invites viewers into a meditative
space open to contemplation on life, death, history, remembrance, the self, and
more.