No Rule is our Rule: Eiko Otake: Screening

In celebration of Otake’s solo exhibition I Invited Myself, vol. II, join us for No Rule is our Rule (2022, 75 mins).

Filmed by Wen Hui and Eiko Otake in China in January 2020, and collaboratively edited during the pandemic.

This is a story of friendship between two independent female artists and their body memories each willingly carry. In January 2020, New York based, interdisciplinary performing artist Eiko Otake arrived in Beijing to visit Wen Hui, a Chinese choreographer and filmmaker. Eight years apart, Eiko grew up in postwar Japan and Wen during the Cultural Revolution. They planned to visit each other for a month to converse and collaborate.

The surge of COVID-19 abruptly cut off Eiko’s visit and the pandemic has so far made Wen’s visit to the USA impossible but not the collaboration. Looking back on the video diaries they shot without a script, Eiko and Wen continued their dialogue on Zoom, sharing past works that form a deeper understanding of their circumstantial differences and characteristic similarities.