Yein Lee - Poursuivant / Pursuers

Impression of Poursuivant / Pursuers 2024

Poursuivant / Pursuers

Artistic Director, Concept, Objects : Yein Lee
Performance duration : 30 minutes
Choreographer: Luca Büchler
Performers: Luca Büchler, Mélissa Biondo, Juri Bizzotto
Sound design: Moritz Nahold
Videographer: Achille Masson
Post production: Julian Ernst

Poursuivant / Pursuers explores the mutability of bodies and the complex relationships between self, societal structures, and the surrounding environment. The work examines how these forces—often in tension—shape both individual subjectivity and collective existence, emphasizing the ambivalence of interconnectivity. The contemporary condition of the body is reflected here: ever-shifting, constantly negotiating with external forces that both constrain and empower.

The performance unfolds through the evolving perspectives of each performer, whose interactions with the sculptures and with one another form a dynamic, complex web of relationships. Crafted from steel tubing, electrical wire, and epoxy putty, the sculptures do not remain external; they become integral to the performers' bodies. This continuous, cyclical process sees the performers trapped, embraced, or freed from the structures, which shift between limitation and liberation. These sculptures blur the boundaries between body and object, challenging the performers’ physicality and sense of self.

At times, the performers resist the sculptures, struggling against their forms, while in other moments they surrender, allowing the sculptures to reshape and redefine them. However, this dynamic is not a simple binary. The performers engage in a range of behaviors in between resistance and surrender: they flirt with the boundaries of the sculptures, teasing and testing them; they push back, asserting their own agency; at times, they coexist with the sculptures in a more symbiotic way, allowing their forms to merge without complete submission or defiance. This fluid negotiation illustrates the complexity of identity and agency, where the boundaries between control, cooperation, and transformation are continually blurred. The wearables, sculpted directly onto the performers' bodies, further complicate these boundaries, emphasizing the mutability of form and destabilizing the line between body and object.

Poursuivant / Pursuers thus becomes a meditation on the forces of power, structure, and environment that continually reshape the body. The performers’ transformation—trapped, embraced, resisting, surrendering—reflects the shifting relationships between bodies, social structures, and the environment. Ultimately, the work explores the ambivalence of interconnectivity, where bodies and structures are in a constant state of flux, influencing and reconfiguring one another in an ongoing process of change.

“Poursuivant / Pursuers” was created in 2024 and presented as part of the group show "This is the time of sweet sweet change for us all" at CALM - Centre d’Art La Meute, Lausanne, Switzerland. This documentation is an edited version of the original length of the performance.

The project is supported by CALM - Centre d’Art La Meute, Vienna City and Federal Ministry Republic of Austria Arts, Culture, Civil Service and Sport.

“Poursuivant / Pursuers” 2024, as part of the group show at CALM - Centre d’Art La Meute, Lausanne, Switzerland, Photo by Théo Dufloo