The Kunming Free-Opera Experience

The Kunming Free-Opera Experience  presents
A Wise Man, A Evil Man, A Princess, A Clown And A Dragon
Artists：Simon Torssell Lerin(Sweden)，Bettina Hvidevold Hystad（Norway), Dong Sheng Art Group(Kunming)
Time：Start at 14:00pm, August 19, 2010
Add: Jin Yu Dao, Green Lake, Kunming
Host by: 943 Studio/ Loft•Jinding 1919

Inspired by seeing all the musicians performing and people dancing at Green Lake Park we wanted to create our own opera together with the local performers at the park. We decided to make our own interpretation of the Beijing-opera by making a stage for the musicians and dancers to perform.

While visiting a drawing-class for children we asked the children to draw different characters for the opera. We also asked the children to draw an image of how they viewed Kunming. The children´s drawings became an inspiration for us when we made the scenography and the 5 masks representing the different characters that the children created.

The musicians and dancers are now invited to interpret the masks and the scenography during a live performance and to create their own story.

The project is composed by the different meetings and collaborations we have had with the local people of Kunming, and in that process we give and receive information that decides how the project is developing. We find the city and the people living here very generous and we hope that with this project can give something back.

Simon Torssell Lerin and Bettina Hvidevold Hystad
August 4, 2010