Commissioned and co-produced by the Taipei Arts Festival and the Asia TOPA Triennial in Melbourne, choreographer Wen-Chi Su joins forces with contemporary dance collective YILAB and leading scientists from the University of Melbourne to embark on an ambitious journey that bridges the human body and the cosmos. As part of this interdisciplinary project, YILAB’s artists ventured deep underground—one kilometer beneath Victoria, Australia—into the Stawell Underground Physics Laboratory (SUPL), where they undertook a residency exploring the elusive forces of dark matter and gravity.
In Sensing Dark Matter, audiences step into an immersive environment where the boundaries between the virtual and the physical blur. Through VR imagery and a surround-soundscape, the work invites viewers to feel the presence of cosmic forces that are invisible to the eye, yet shape our very existence.
Curator River Lin and Wen-Chi Su engage in a conversation that traces the intersections of science, technology, and the body—asking how art might serve as a medium for sensing the structure of the universe and reimagining the limits of perception.
Speaker｜Su Wen-chi
Active since 1998, Wen-chi Su began her career as a dancer with Taipei Dance Circle and later expanded her creative engagements to Belgium. She has served residency at prestigious institutions including Arts@CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, and EMPAC, the Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center in the United States. Her VR work Black Hole Museum + Body Browser was selected for the 2023 Annecy International Animation Film Festival. Her 2019 piece Infinity Minus One was nominated for the 17th Taishin Arts Award, and in 2009, Heroïne received the Taishin Arts Award Special Jury Prize.
Host｜River Lin
River Lin is a Paris- and Taipei-based artist and curator whose practice spans theatre, dance, live art, visual art, and queer culture. He is the founding director of several key initiatives at the Taipei Performing Arts Center, including ADAM (since 2017) and Camping Asia (since 2019). He has served as the Curator of the Taipei Arts Festival since 2023. Lin also holds several international curatorial roles: Guest Curator of the 2025 Biennale de la Danse de Lyon, Co-Curator of the Indonesia Dance Festival, Guest Editor at OnCurating Journal, and a member of the Curatorial Board at Curating in Performing Arts, University of Salzburg.
