Do fish sleep at night?

2024

Performative dinner installation in collaboration with Zifi restaurant,
Luxulake, Chengdu, Sichuan, China.

Installation of a « tablescape » with wood fired ceramics made of clay dug out of Luxulake and Dujiangyan’s ground. The ceramic are covered with glazes made with local tree’s ashes: pine, apple and lychee. It unfolds into a performative dinner event in collaboration with Zifi restaurant, Luxulakes, who designed specific Sichuan’ tastes for the occasion.
As part of the event a leaflet has been printed that gathers various interviews from local specialist: geologist, urban designer, water specialist.

Made during a residency at A4 residency, Chengdu, China with the support of Pro Helvetia Shanghai

Special thanks to A4 residency team: Cai Liyuan, Yi Weiting, Li Yuaqi, Huang Wensha; Interviewee: Fan Yalin, Le Yin, Hoo, Liao Bowen, Tang Wei, Yiyi; project assistant: Chan Yenan, Zeng Hao; Translation and proofreading: Chen Yenan, Tang Shengyao; FirmFirm design studio; ZIFI luxulake

« Do fish sleep at night » is a project emerging from a two months stay in the Luxulake area in Chengdu (June-August 2024). This newly built neighborhood, still under construction, appears as an ideal city: modern high-sky buildings; neat green areas blooming with flowers and lush trees surrounded by a lake to enjoy leisure times. It offers the vision of a modern city with no appearing cracks. It is totally artificial. The lake and the trees, the people and the flowers together with fish and birds are all newcomers to this human created ecosystem.

And I wonder: on which land do I stay, what is here that I do not see.

Instead of looking high at the buildings’ new skyline, or straight at the perfect green grass, the focus of « Do fish sleep at night » is to look down at the ground and beneath the ground. Behind walls, located at the level of tree roots, humidity and mushrooms are proliferating. Underneath the water, planktons, algae and fish are breathing. Human feet are walking on concrete silencing a soil made of minerals laying still. « Do fish sleep at night » would like to create a space where the hidden aspects of nature, what is happening underneath and below the ground, is being magnified. It is a space that does not speak of the amazing flowers or green leaves of a tree. It is an invitation to cultivate curiosity about unseen matter: mud, minerals, ashes and algae.

The project combines various local materials found in the area, some which were here since long ago and some that have been brought to the place during its development. They are collected, mixed and new entity are fabricated: local mud becomes clay to design ceramic elements whose aesthetic is infused by details of the surrounding architecture. Glaze made out of local apple, pine and lynche tree’s ashes is used to cover the designed objects. Subsequently, the ceramics are wood fired merging traditional and contemporary know-how in their aesthetics. There is no distinction here: notions of natural and artificial, traditional and contemporary are here cross-pollinating and merging. Moreover, when using non-industrial materials, one has to go along with uneven results that can vary in colors, that can have defaults, that are unpredictable and may lead to failures. « Do fish sleep at night » is an ode to process of transformation. It is a sublimation of experiments without a total control over the elements. This is the human process. This is nature’s process too.

The project’s concerns meet, along the way, Donna Harraway’s concept of the Chtulucene (Staying with the trouble). She describes our epoch as that beyond the Anthropocene, one that not only accepts and sees but also makes use of its garbage, of the remaining of diverse species, of all organic, inorganic and even toxic elements to reach on symbiosis. It is about building relations, making ‘kin’ as she puts it; the challenges of assemblage and interweaving between all the different and seemingly contrasting parts that compose today’s world.

« Do fish sleep at night » culminates into a performative dinner event in collaboration with a restaurant from Luxulake: Zeifei, who will provide insight into Sichuan cuisine and tastes through local ingredients. Fish from the lake, seasonal mushrooms and organic food from a local farm will be served. Through the display of the ceramics into a performative scenography, the project will unfold into a « tablescape » proposing things to see, to smell, to hear, to feel, to taste.

« Do fish sleep at night », makes use of what is available locally and magnifies it to bring it back to the community. It aims to connect with the local public who will be able to project itself in relation to materials, colors and taste they may recognize or discover anew on the « tablescape ». The moment of the dinner shall be the ground for an open dialog about the specificity of a place like Luxulake and what questions a human-made ecosystem like this raises. « Do fish sleep at night » does not seek for defined answers but hopes to give space for unheard voices to be heard. Here the ordinary is praised as extraordinary. Mud, ashes and blurry water take the stage to whisper some notes to our ears.

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« Do fish sleep at night » in collaboration with Zifi Restaurant

Menu

matsutake mushrooms in original flavour  /  Hidden in the ground by the pine needle duff
Pan-fried toadstool with sea salt/ Out there in the dark, between your toe
Brined Boletus in Sichuan flavor/ I sponge you soft, I sponge you slowly
wild mushroom / We feel the wind without hearing the sky

Slight Fillet / Water does hold some oxygen like clouds do
Fried small fish / Sleeping by floating in place

Small Sichuan chili/ From the ground, whispering to you
Braised eggplant / Bursting head down in a purple gown
steamed organic egg with crab on top /  High up in the air, falling down like water

Crisp dessert shaped like a swan / Spreading my neck to sing in your hand

Fois gras with cherry / Red on pink on red
Beef ribs in Sichuan pepper flavor / Electricity buzzing, I hear your feet coming
sous-vide Boston lobster / Softness of the soul, color of the fire
crispy braised pork / Cracks allow light in