Ny20+ What Floats Between Us. Practices of Presence

NY20+ Residency, Chengdu, China | May – June 2026

I was invited to participate in the NY20+ Residency in Chengdu, China, with What Floats Between Us. Practices of Presence.

The residency gave me the time and space to follow bubbles into new territory.

Moreover, I am experimenting with floating forms and discovering new ways of working with the material.

Chengdu

Being in Chengdu placed my practice in a cultural context that was completely new to me, and I began to see the city through fresh artistic lenses that broadened my awareness, sharpened my focus, and influenced my daily approach to work. These perspectives gradually informed the way I approached performance.

The city’s museums and exhibitions, as well as experiencing Sichuan opera, became part of how I encountered the city and shaped my work in ways that persisted beyond the visit. Additionally, they influenced the way I looked at my own practice and the methods I used on stage.

What Floats Between Us

During the residency, I created a new performance under the title What Floats Between Us. Created specifically for the outdoor stage, the performance brought together floating soap bubbles and Bashu influenced live music.

Poyo, a Chinese musician, played the Pipa and drum, with music created especially for the performance. On stage, the music and the bubbles became part of the same choreography, while the bubbles moved beyond the stage and floated above the audience.

The residency allowed me to work intensively with helium exploration in the studio. Having a dedicated studio within walking distance helped me work consistently. I could spend an extended period focused on experimentation, practice, and new routines.I also had the freedom to follow ideas that might otherwise have remained unexplored. Additionally, this included working with new tools and experimenting with bubbles in ceramics. The exchange with the other residents became an important part of this process.

The residency opened up questions and possibilities that continue to feed into my artistic research.

Public Programme

Throughout the residency, I shared the developing work with the public through several open studio visits. Moreover, the programme included an Artist Talk, workshops, an interactive bubble station and the newly created outdoor stage performance.