The Wuwei Performance Series, inspired by Laozi’s teachings of “non-action”, is a performance art event that is thought to be necessary in Singapore as the form is not as active as it once was. As the saying goes, “无为而无不为” (no action will come in necessary action). So this is the right time to be active. 

WUWEI Performance Series
By Richard Chua

Chinese Lao Zi’s philosophy has caused many misunderstandings and misconceptions. The very line in which the words of the performance series came from “无为而无不为” has got many different interpretations, even by scholars of philosophy in China and beyond. The words 无为 mean inaction. For a performance art event that predicates its philosophy on inaction, it seems like a contradiction. At a more reflexive level, inaction also plays a big part in performance art events. Marina Abramovic is a female performance artist whose ability to stir emotional responses through inaction has received acclaim in the international arts world. The liminal space that lies between the action and inaction of a performance gives rise to contentions and conflict. In terms of performance vocabularies, that’s where contestations take place. However, by doing too much goes against the principle of inaction (无为) where the way of things in the cosmos is to plan and work with the natural flow and not to go against it. In Buddhist philosophy, the idea of cause and effect could be used and read alongside the Daoist philosophy. Cause and Effect not only restricts itself to just personal actions in everyday life, but also one’s thoughts about how to respond in everyday life.

Within the confines of life (life and death) and system of nature, there is a significant amount of freedom. It is in this freedom that performance artist could explore to the maximum of their ability, testing the natural system. Performance artists use their bodies as the medium for artistic expression constantly pushing the limits of their bodies, not just physically but also its relationship with the world. One such experiment in Singapore is performance artist Seelan Palay’s piece entitled 32 Years: The Interrogation of a Mirror, which has tested the boundaries of a one-man performance art practice to the state’s definition of public order. He was charged in court under the Public Order Act. Palay was not the only performance artist who has been arrested. In the history of Singapore performance art, there were a few examples. 1 However, as much as a good number of the performative art practices in Singapore are politically driven, it would be narrow to say that performance art is a political art form. Rather art is inherently political, no matter what form it takes.

Performance art focuses on the temporal, the relationship between time and space as well as the body. Space is also an important site for bodily experimentation. For Wu Wei Performance Series, how does an independent space such as Your Mother Gallery function in the practice of performance art in Singapore? Like all other spaces in Singapore, are they merely a site where creative production takes place and not discourses? From 1990, the founding of Singapore first independent arts space The Substation till now, and all other spaces that existed in between, to what extent are their contributions to the artistic discourse in Singapore? It is a timely question to be researched and answered. As far as I know, the Independent Archives (IA) has been diligently engaged in this project.

Whether Wu Wei Performance Series would achieve an action predicated on inaction is not the point, but the discussion and discourse that could emerge from the art practices make a collective capacity building and knowledge building meaningful. However, meaning could only be constructed based on constant construction and deconstruction of the power and political structures of space, society and the bodies.

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Wuwei Performance Circle
Meditation, Mediation, Medication
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