Retina Maneuver trailer

Retina Maneuver

a multimedia lecture-performance by Ping-Hsiang Wang

Why is a Taiwanese military reservist so fascinated by Alicia Keys’ chart-topping hit Girl on Fire—a gay anthem he has sung countless times in karaoke bars? As he launches into the song’s climax, he is struck by a disorienting realization: he can no longer place himself in the timeline of his own life when this transformative song was released on September 4, 2012.

A fanatical search through his digital archives unearths fragments of memory and confronts him with a past haunted by violence and destruction. In a live performance that assembles a visual monument entirely from memory, Wang wrestles with the fragility of remembrance—and the unsettling reality that everything he has preserved could go up in flames in an instant, consumed by forces beyond his control.

Retina Maneuver is a K-hole Karaoke production, co-produced with TATWERK | Performative Forschung (Berlin), Freies Werkstatt Theater (Cologne), and Kaaitheater (Brussels).

The production is supported by the Fonds Darstellende Künste with funds from the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media, as well as the National Culture and Arts Foundation Taiwan. Additional support comes from the residency program at PACT Zollverein (Essen), funded by the Ministry for Culture and Science of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia.

The project also receives backing from Mestizo Arts Platform, English Theatre Berlin | International Performing Arts Center, and the 2022 Thinkers’ Partner Project (TP Project), organized by Thinkers’ Studio.

Credits

Artistic Creation & Performance — Ping-Hsiang Wang

Dramaturgy — Wan Shi

Lighting Design — Raquel Rosildete

Lighting Design Assistance — Sára Enyingi

Stage Consultation — Soojin Oh

Artistic Production — Aurora Kellermann

Videography — Ayham Qomoq