Retina Maneuver - Ping-Hsiang Wang / Fringify - Independent Arts Festival Hamburg

Why is a Taiwanese military reservist so captivated by Alicia Keys’ chart-topping hit Girl on Fire— a gay anthem he’s performed countless times at karaoke bars? As he belts out the song’s soaring climax, he’s struck by a disorienting realization: he can no longer place himself in the timeline of his own life when this transformative track was released on September 4th, 2012. A fanatical search through his digital archives brings fragments of the memory to light, only to confront 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 recollection—and with the unsettling reality that everything he’s preserved could go up in flames in an instant, consumed by forces beyond his control.

Created and performed by: Ping-Hsiang Wang - Artist and performer | Wanshi – Dramaturg | Aurora Kellermann - Artistic producer