In the context of the current exhibition The Appearance: Art of the Asian Diaspora in Latin America & the Caribbean Venezuelan-Korean artist Suwon Lee presents the debut performance of Dictee/Exilee. In 1975, Korean American artist Theresa Hak Kyung Cha's powerful performance Aveugle Voix embodied the challenges of expressing the migrant experience through language. By covering her eyes and mouth with bandages labeled "voice" and "blind," she enacted the fragmentation of identity, language, and memory. Cha's work, rich in multiplicity and multilingualism, is an enduring inspiration for the performance, Dictee/Exilee. In this piece, Suwon Lee pays homage to Cha's legacy while weaving a narrative that reflects her own journey as a Venezuelan woman living in self-imposed exile for the past eight years. Her performance explores the complexities of preserving identity and cultural memory amidst physical displacement. By reciting over 380 names of cities, streets, natural monuments, flora, and fauna from her homeland, she creates a "spoken portrait" that roots her in the cultural memory of Venezuela--a memory that transcends geographical and linguistic boundaries. In this performance, the dimmed lights, projected images, and spoken words intertwine to form a tunnel-like narrative, drawing the audience into a dreamlike exploration of identity, memory, and the unyielding ties to one's mother tongue. As Cha expressed in her seminal work Dictee, "Mother tongue is your refuge. It is being home." Dictee/Exilee is not just a performance--it is a reclamation of self, an affirmation that, despite the passage of time and distance, exile is not the end, but a continuation of one's cultural journey.
New York City, NY; NYC