Traces of The Wind
Vault Fringe Festival 2023
Co-directed, devised and performed by Xi Chen, Jiajing Zhao and Jiuming Duan (Not Set group)
The wind whispers to your ear, carrying pieces of memories, and silently slips away. You don’t know where it comes from or where it goes, when it will appear or how it will end. Traveling between past, present, and future, across lands and seas, it eventually becomes time and space itself…
Traces of The Wind is a poetic, multi-sensory exploration of our ineffable, bodily, and spiritual connection with the wind. Through an immersive experience combining live sound, video, light, and interactive installations, the performance traces the unseen forces of the wind and their power to evoke subtle emotions and memories.
The project began with interviews, gathering wind-inspired stories and memories from individuals across diverse cultural and social backgrounds. These collective experiences became the foundation for a theatrical journey shaped by sound, visuals, and technology.
Presented by NOT SET, an interdisciplinary art and theatre group founded by Xi Chen, Zhao Jiajing, and Jiuming Duan, Traces of The Wind brings together multiple art forms to explore the invisible yet deeply felt essence of the wind.
‘One gets a strong sense that something beautiful is happening.’ - The Upcoming
Creative Team
Co-Director, Deviser and Performer: Xi Chen, Jiuming Duan, Zhao Jiajing
Composer and Sound Design: Zhao Jiajing
Set Design: Jiuming Duan
Dramaturg: Xi Chen
Creative Coding: Yueshen Wu
Graphic design: Yitong Feng
Technical Stage manager: Angus Wu
Marketing and Communications Coordinator: Sam Hind
Many thanks to following interviewers for their great contribution to our show: Susan Atwill, Zhihang Li, Ran Bi, Chang Meng, Nirav Beni, Yajie Liu, Peilin Wu, Siyu Hao, Dayou Geng, Yuan Xiang, Pei-yao Chang, Savyna Indranee Darby, Portia Lee, Dor Cohen.
With special thanks to: Fan Ji, Qiyuan Zhao, Jingyi Sun, Arthur Wilson, Claudia Palcova, Chenwei Wang, Saiyuan Li, Jade Gong, Malachy Orozco.
We are grateful to Iskandar and Mingyu from Ellandar Theatre Production Company, as well as David Byrne, the Artistic Director and CEO of the Royal Court, for their willingness to support and assist us in further developing this project after the Vault Festival. As an emerging artistic group, this is an incredible source of encouragement for us.