Recreation of Nuo
Nuo culture has been developed for more than three thousand years and it was once a shining pearl of Chinese culture. But with the disengagement of rituals and the modernisation process, Nuo gradually faded from view.
The aim of this project is to deconstruct and restructure Nuo and create a new branch of the Nuo culture, which strips away the original ritualistic attributes and emphasises its entertaining qualities and better transmission.
Gallery
Research
Inspiration
As a child, I was fascinated by a poster of Nuo near my house that highlighted its cultural importance. As I grew older, I noticed that the traditional art form of Nuo was struggling to stay relevant. This inspired me to reinvent Nuo in a contemporary, immersive way, creating new works that engage audiences and preserve its cultural significance.
Historical Research
Nuo is a form of religious dance with a long history dating back to ancient times. It was initially associated with the deity Fang Xiang, who wore a bear skin and golden mask and wielded a sword and shield to command ghost soldiers to drive away epidemics.
Nuo developed over time, with many regional characters emerging, particularly during the Song dynasty. Today, the traditional Nuo ritual ceremony is largely underground, with the performance aspect recognized as intangible cultural heritage.
It is rare to see the most primitive parts of Nuo in cities, but the sacrifice process can still be seen in less developed areas of China.
Performance Research
Nuo is a ritual performed by the practitioners of Chinese folk religion, which is a mixture of Taoism and regional beliefs. It typically involves music, dance, and the use of talismans, incense, and other ritual objects. The ritual is believed to bring blessings and protection to the participants and the community.
Nuo performances consist of three stages: Opening the altar, opening the Peach Flower Garden, and closing the altar.
The opening and closing ceremonies serve to honor and bid farewell to the gods, while the opening of the Peach Flower Garden is the highlight of the performance.
The altar is the central unit for the performance, with a group of six to ten people, including a shaman who leads the group and acts as the intermediary between the human and divine realms.
Interview
I noticed that there exists some Nuo phenomenon in my hometown whilst doing the research,then I contacted Mr.Liang, the director of Intangible Cultural Heritage Research Centre. He received me in the centre and we had a valuable conversation around Nuo performance.
Q: Why Nuo has so many types of expressions?
A: Well, Some of them are the variants of Nuo, such as the Japanese Noh performance and the Bhutan Mask dance. But it’s easy to tell that actors in every kind of Nuo performance will wear the masks representing different characters.
There is a folk saying: “When you wear the mask, you become a god; when you take off the mask, you are just a mortal.” There are written records of Nuo from as early as the Shang Dynasty (1600 B.C. - 1046 B.C.).
Whilst talking about the Nuo origin within China, it derived in the Yellow River Basin, which is rough but embedded with massive energy.
Q: What is your professional definition of Nuo?
A: From the perspective of culture, Nuo is a product of original religious beliefs, an ancient mystical ritual to ward off evil spirits and epidemics and to avoid bad luck. It is also the oldest, most culturally rich and living intangible cultural heritage in China.
Q: Could you describe the specific local Nuo?
A: When our ancestors hold the Nuo ceremony, except for the masks of regional Nuo gods, they added some local instruments to simulate the sounds of lightning and dance along with it. The accompaniment is usually provided by percussion such as clay drums, moon drums, high sided gongs, some with cymbals, suona and bullhorns.
Insight
In the contemporary world we are able to choose the worship avatar by our own will.
Under this circumstance we could even custom our own object of worship in order to get comfort and communicate with ourselves individually in a Nuo way.
Apart from inherit the spirit of Nuo culture, this project also aims at provide a space where everyone can communicate with their own spirit and visualize their own Nuo deity characters.
Case Study
The Fictional Temples (Tianzhuo Chen)
This is an online exhibition project where online worship activities are able to achieve.It is a shadow of the online Buddhist communication platform.
Oblations are consecrated to the artist's performance props, which become the new gods while parodying the old ones. Buddhism does not recognize the physical body, and online worship takes this idea to an extreme in the digital network, but the audience, having successfully triggered the mechanism, regains a sense of reality in the midst of rhythmic disruption and physical exhaustion.
Taichi Motion (Fan Xiang)
By calculating the Taichi movement of whole time,the artist analyzed the rhythm of this Chinese boxing and transformed it into the traditional Chinese painting-like film.
AURA AT THE NOTRE-DAME BASILICA (Moment Factory)
A luminous experience in the heart of Notre-Dame Basilica, using the modeling and projecting technics to re vival different sorts of the possibility the hall could be.
The permanent experience with sound, light and video that would invite visitors to discover the Notre-Dame Basilica in old Montreal in a whole new way.
