Ivan Cheng: No Rave — Wagon Wheel Metatheatre

‘No Rave: Wagon Wheel Metatheatre’ is a zine made by Ivan Cheng with contributions from Özgür Kar, Spencer Lai, Mire Lee, Magdalena Mitterhofer, Dominic Rich, and Yashi. In February, Cheng commissioned these artists to render some version of his performing body based on a synopsis and an outline of characters from his then in-progress book, ‘Confidences / Baseline’. The result is an approximation of a performance for print. This full colour, glossy, 44 A4 page print is the standalone edition from the project, commissioned for Zürich Moves, a performance festival that celebrates its 10th anniversary in 2021 by taking form this year as a magazine.

The performances of Ivan Cheng are incomplete, failing, desperate, and riddled with absence. They use his variously trained performing body, incanting texts that foreground subjectivity in monologues and dialogues. Identities of other interlocutors become embedded through rehearsal, dialogue, and entrustment. Without deluded presupposition of being for everyone, Cheng’s practice is invested in questions around publics and accessibility.