Ho Tzu Nyen

When visual artist Ho Tzu Nyen presented his first theatrical work at the Vienna Festival in 2014, the audience and the theater world were fascinated. Using a mixture of mechanical stage elements, acting, striking video work and exactingly composed sound pieces, Ho was able to turn highly complex discourses about the Southeast Asian colonial history into something sensuously overwhelming and touching. This work was part of a long-term project, THE CRITICAL DICTIONARY OF SOUTHEAST ASIA, a post-national encyclopedia in different artistic formats (and an inspiration for our conference, HEIMATPHANTASIEN). Works from this encyclopedic series are on display of an acompanying exhibition at the Kunstverein in Hamburg, and Ho has created a world premiere for the opening week of the International Summer Festival: THE MYSTERIOUS LAI TECK, about the Secretary General of the Malayan Communist Party from 1939 to 1947, who was later revealed to be a triple agent for France, the United Kingdom and Japan. With an animatronic puppet, shadow play, projections and music, Ho Tzu Nyen explores the life of a man who had approximately 50 pseudonyms and about whom almost no biographical details are known. A visually powerful spy story about the figure of the »traitor« and its significance for a region whose national borders were created by the colonial powers and which is until today being torn apart by countless conflicts and nationalisms.

Audience discussion after the show on Thursday, 9th August.

THE MYSTERIOUS LAI TECK production leaflet (PDF download)