With the performances Moyang 先祖 & Seaman 漁師, director and visual artist Tianzhuo Chen crafts a minimal yet strikingly powerful setting, centering the dancer & choreographer Siko Setyanto as the protagonist in two episodes, based on their work Ocean Cage.
Chen and Setyanto explore the intersection of ancient traditions with the introduction of expressive dance improvisation to narrate a captivating tale of the encounter of the ancestors and the whale.
Le Guess Who? 2025 guest curator Tianzhuo Chen has developed a distinct voice in contemporary art through a multidisciplinary practice spanning performance, installation, video, photography, and works on paper. His hypnotic performances merge these elements, blurring lines between exhibition and theater, and drawing viewers into an alternative world. Fragmented symbols from subcultures, club culture, religious rituals, and ecological debates explore varied definitions of existence, spiritual forms, and post-human complexity. These diverse references merge into a surprising, seamless chemistry.
Though initially puzzling in its novelty and absurdity, Chen’s work isn’t meant to be decoded; instead, it constructs an ambiguous world between reality and illusion. It invites full sensory engagement: visual, aural, and physical. A constant across his practice is the intensity of visual imagery, rich and overwhelming. Through this, Chen reflects on the absurdity of life and death, offering a lasting meditation on existence.
Siko Setyanto is a dancer and choreographer from Jakarta, Indonesia. He chose dance as a means of expression, opening up the opportunity to work extensively in multidisciplinary arts. Siko began his training at the age of nine with Wied Sendjayani at the Sanggar Maniratari, Solo. The diversity of Indonesian culture in which Siko grew up and the opportunity to participate in jazz and ballet training as a child provide a strong foundation for Siko's dance and choreographic vocabulary.
Uncompromising and intense, the duo of Kadapat is one of the best hidden talents in Bali's promising music scene, inviting listeners to get to know the Millennial youth from Bali's suburbs through their new self-titled album. They combine idiosyncratic resonances and references that transform into unexpected but unique sound developments. They play with a kind of "hybrid identity" embedded in urban culture, technology, Balinese cosmopolitanism and traditional culture.
Nova Ruth is the singer, musician, and activist who co-founded Arka Kinari: a floating cultural platform that takes the form of a 70-ton sailing ship on a mission to foster resilience to climate change and reconnect people with the sea. Nova Ruth sails with Arka Kinari in Indonesian waters and she performs atop a traditional schooner ship that carries tales of climate resilience and solutions.
The two performances of Moyang 先祖 & Seaman 漁師 will be presented during Le Guess Who? 2025 on Friday 7 November. As part of his curation, Tianzhuo Chen invites 33EMYBW & Joey Holder, GOTH-TRAD, HULUBALANG, and more.
