10.000 Waters, Version 1. Performance filling 10.000 cups of water and Installation, 2013. Des Pacio, San José, Costa Rica, 2013.
Viola Chen 1940-2012
On July 27th 2013 Viola Chen passed away, she was my aunt; we hadn’t seen each other in 13 years. This performance intends to spell her name – which means one thousand waters in mandarin – by placing 10,000 glasses and filling them with water. In a way, this permutation represents her portrait through literal significance of her name and identity.
This piece is a ritual that references not only her name, but also the distance and the sea that separated our encounters, in the same way that happens in most immigrant families. Filling 10,000 glasses is an action that is analogous to how I dealt with family relationships that were thousands of miles away: A solitary grooming of my memory and symbols acquired through brief and regulated intervals in which we were able to interact.
This performance took place from August 8th to 10th 2013, at Galería Des Pacio (San José, Costa Rica).
