Questioning the line (2023-ongoing), Movana Chen created a wearable double-container, knitted from maps she collected from friends all over the world. This new work originates from the concept of 2 meter social distancing, symbolising human separation and the silence of our world over the prior two years of closed borders during the Covid-19 pandemic. These surreal experiences inspired Chen to explore the relationship between human and nature.
In a collaboration project, Chen invited a movement artist to bring the body container to life. Inside Chen’s interconnected Body Container, they improvised non-verbal dialogue with nature. The stillness dialogue were captured by a cinematographer on a series of short films that blur conceptual lines and reveal the common thread that weaves the human body with the land that gives us life. More importantly, the performances highlight how humanity must delay no further in protecting our shared home: the Earth.
paper
maps
fragile
knitted together
by human
hand together
we build
our home where
we born
we cry
we love
we kiss
we hug
we miss
we losse
we gone
back to the land
we go
we learn
we love
we have to care
for this land
our home
Movana Chen: Questioning the line, 2023 - ongoing
Sculpture: knitted shredded maps, 580 x 75 x 5cm
Video of performance, color, no sound, 3 minutes each
Performance by Movana Chen and Francisco Borges, cinematography by Tyler Weinberger
Questioning the line, 2023 - 2025
Performance by Movana Chen and Franciso Borges
Photography by Tyler Weinberger, 2023; Photography by Asia Art Archive, 2024
Photography by Felix Wong, Flowers Gallery; Patrice Bodenand, 2025 Art Basel