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a certain necessity, concrete and durational actions



2026-ongoing / 45:00 / choreographic performance


a certain necessity, concrete and durational actions is an ongoing practice: when initiating a performance, I closely observe the materials and the actual state of consciousness present in my body, then translate them into a physical and visual language. Everything that is presented is a dance imbued with a certain inevitability. It opens up a situation in which factuality and directness matter, without over-rehearsal. It does not express, it simply is. All it needs is a specific site and timeframe—a rite of gathering, akin to gazing at a still life, a gust of wind on the grassland that passes through the hair—only being present with a dance unfolding itself. This dance, like the process of a flower opening, is factual, following natural laws and remaining free from the will. 

The work takes artist Yi Xin Tong’s 2022 poem Opening (from the project Manuel d’amour environnemental realized and published by Palais de Tokyo), as its prelude. It engages in a dialogue with performance, regarding concreteness, the shape of time, and the abstract body. The performance offers a bodily and tactile contribution to the site, an emergence in which lived and experienced materials operate beyond representation.



Concept and Performance: NiNi Dongnier

Poetry: Yi Xin Tong

Sound: Yi Xin Tong, Mauricio Pauly, Largo di Handel: Ombra mai fu: Aria da Xerxes HWV 40

Curation: Yuling Zhang, Xiyun Dai

Photo: LIN Laier

Thanks to Junjun and TIAN Jun.



 08/02/2026 C22 Space, Beijing