THE HEIST: A TOUR GUIDE

For the open rehearsals, collective 皮包公司 Pibao Gongsi will be transforming the BPA//Raum into a tourism office. It will be serving as the starting point for a dramaturgical experiment of “The Heist: A Tour Guide”, a walk through Museum Island for your voyeuristic delight. 皮包公司 Pibao Gongsi will be sharing personal anecdotes and stories about the Island: from the militaristic-capitalist expansion of the empire in the 19th century to the museum’s intrinsic contribution to imperial aesthetic expression. In the erecting and running of such monolithic monuments, what labour stayed hidden underneath, powering the machine of beauty? The stones that house the impartial sciences wept. Their tears brushed the walls in shining white.

皮包公司 Pibao Gongsi is formed by Tian Guoxin, Liu Chao and Hannah O’Flynn under the umbrella of the collective with the rubbles of old palaces. It researches how empire represents itself, as well as the relation between aesthetics and imperial power. It looks at how the practice of art, infrastructures of exhibition making and of cultural knowledge production are indebted to the relentless efforts of empire-making. 皮包公司 Pibao Gongsi is a collective effort to look at how art and exhibition practices can be thought of outside, beyond and before imperial self-representation, even while Empire continues to be our daily experience.

 Image: Tian Guoxin & Hannah O'Flynn via Midjourney.