“Mute” is the largest solo exhibition to date by artist and composer Pan Daijing (b. 1991, Guiyang, China). The live exhibition will occupy the entire Westgalerie of Haus der Kunst and adjacent spaces inside and outside the building. It invites the audience on a journey that encompasses architectural elements and unregistered spaces, manifesting as an ever-evolving environment. Pan Daijing‘s work is dedicated to process: works from the last ten years are reinterpreted and supplemented by new productions.
I want Mute to speak to our inner voices. It should bring the eyes closer to the ears; our bodies to the ground and our minds to the sky […] It will crack open thousands of miles below our feet, and the current will hold us.
– Pan Daijing
Daijing’s works develop a symbiotic relationship with the spaces in which they unfold. The exhibition created for Haus der Kunst encompasses choreography, architectural intervention, sound, and video, rerouting the gaze and opening up unseen spaces. In a choreography exploring stillness and liveness, intimacy and distance, a performance ensemble activates a process of transformation. The durational performances throughout the six weeks of the exhibition aim to distort oppositions, such as the perception of inside and outside, or slow down the velocity of time. The audience is invited to immerse themselves, tracing the live elements of the performance. In a world of increasing interdependencies and entanglements, Daijing’s work probes what connects us and asks us to engage with our emotions. Every day, during the slow swing from day to dusk, several dancers animate the space. You may encounter them, or encounter their traces. There are countless ways to experience “Mute”.
The daily activations will be performed by Amie Jammeh, Chihiro Araki, and Wai Lok Chan. The performers will be present weekdays from 3–7 pm and on weekends between 1–5 pm.
Curated by Sarah Johanna Theurer with Lydia Antoniou, Emma Enderby, and Andrea Lissoni.
Pan Daijing. Mute, 9th March – 14th April 2024,
Haus der Kunst
Opening with performative activation 8th March & 9th March 7pm
The live exhibition “Mute” opens with a performative activation. During the activation, visitors are invited to explore the exhibition space in the presence of eight dancers. Embedded in a composition that combines opera singing and electronic music, individual voices repeatedly emerge and fade away. Within this sonic continuum, the audience can move freely through the landscape created by the artist. They become part of this space and, as Daijing puts it: “Everything becomes music”.
The opening of “Mute” will be performed by Amie Jammeh, Chihiro Araki, Cary Shiu, Camilla Brogaard, Kelvin Burkard, Leah Katz, Wai Lok Chan, and Pan Daijing.
“Mute” is commissioned by Haus der Kunst München. With support from Y.D.C. and with additional support for the performance by Kulturreferat der Landeshauptstadt München, Goethe-Institut, and Kemmler Foundation.
In conjunction with the exhibition, Pan Daijing’s first monograph will be published by Spector Books in collaboration with Tai Kwun Contemporary. Contributors include Emma Enderby, Donatien Grau, Mark Harwood, Andrea Lissoni, Raimundas Malašauskas, Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese, Xue Tan, and Sarah Johanna Theurer.
About the artist
Pan Daijing (b. Guiyang, China) is an artist and composer who primarily engages with performance, installation, sound and moving images in her practice. Drawing on the capacity of music to exceed the limits of language and distort the passage of time, Daijing’s work seeks to communicate physical, psychological and sonic depths, and to invoke a collective experience of solitude. Often realised as architectural interventions, her work pressurizes the boundaries between forms and between the alive and inanimate to create enveloping, sensory environments to be inhabited.
Daijing has presented and exhibited her work internationally at the 14th Gwangju Biennale (2023); Louvre, Paris (2023); Tai Kwun Contemporary, Hong Kong (2021); the 13th Shanghaim Biennale (2021); Martin Gropius Bau, Berlin (2020); Tate Modern, London (2019); Biennale of Moving Image, Geneva (2018), among others. In 2024, Pan Daijing will present a solo exhibition at Haus der Kunst in Munich and, as the recipient of the Preis der Nationalgalerie, will also exhibit at Hamburger Bahnhof in Berlin. She has performed at numerous venues and festivals including Barbican Center, London; Kraftwerk, Berlin; Elbphilharmonie, Hamburg; Sonar Festival, Barcelona; Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin; and National Pantheon, Lisbon. She has released three full-length albums, Tissues (2022), Jade (2021), and Lack (2017).
Preis der Nationalgalerie exhibition at Hamburger Bahnhof June 2023
From June, Pan Daijing will exhibit new work at Berlin’s Hamburger Bahnhof, as a recipient of the 2024 Preis der Nationalgalerie, one of Germany’s most prestigious art prizes. Combining multiple mediums across several spaces inside and outside the museum, Daijing’s work will explore architectural memory and modes of spatial storytelling.
Taking place every two years, this year the Preis der Nationalgalerie was awarded to four artists for the first time. In its new format, the 2024 group exhibition will be approached as a collective artistic exchange. Each of the four new works will be acquired by the Nationalgalerie, becoming part of the institution’s collection.
Plus a new album will be released in late Spring, followed by an Autumn music tour, presenting new audio/visual live performances across many venues and music festivals in Europe. More to be announced soon. pan-daijing.bandcamp.com
