Performance Art, Movement, Sculpture
MOVANA CHEN QUESTIONING THE LINE
WELCOME TO LONDON’S INTERNATIONAL THEATRE The Coronet Theatre is a reimagined architectural and design jewel, originally built as a grand Victorian Playhouse, now a pioneering home for international, cross-disciplinary arts. Curated by Artistic Director Anda Winters, over the past decade it has become a significant cultural landmark. Known for world and UK premieres, its mission is to bring artists and art forms from around the world, championing work that would not otherwise be seen. The programme enables access for diverse audiences to world-class theatre, dance, music, film and visual arts through co-productions, commissions, and invited works. Centrally situated in London’s Notting Hill, The Coronet has two main spaces: The Auditorium and The Print Room Studio. With the additional performances and exhibitions in the bar, the atmospheric upper rooms, and basements, the whole building is a living global showcase.
MOVANA CHEN QUESTIONING THE LINE AN EVOCATIVE BLEND OF PERFORMANCE ART, MOVEMENT AND SCULPTURE In the radical Questioning the Line, Movana Chen and a group of dancers form living statues that move, breathe and enter into an improvised dialogue through movement, periodically emerging into stillness as they explore their relationships with one another and with the audience. Presented in the Print Room Studio to a maximum audience of just 60, this intimate work brings together performance, media, installation and sculpture. Seen in London for the first time, Questioning the Line is the latest live performance in artist Movana Chen’s ongoing Body Containers series, in which dancers perform within interconnected wearable sculptures. Maps become not simply a backdrop, but part of the work itself: shredded cartographic imagery is transformed into Chen’s Body Containers, embedding questions of territory directly into the body. At its core, the work considers the body as a vessel for stories, histories and languages, tracing the visible and invisible boundaries that shape how we understand bodies, land and identity. In a world increasingly shaped by division, displacement and ecological uncertainty, Questioning the Line invites us to reconsider the lines we draw and imagine a more interconnected way of being. It is an act of remembering our shared belonging to the earth, and our responsibility to care for it.
CAST & CREATIVE TEAM Created by
Movana Chen
Performers
Movana Chen, Francisco Borges, Nikolaï Denz, Alexa Papa, Tim Winkler, Mandy Kimm, Théïa Maldoom
Sound Design
Movana Chen and Nikolaï Denz
With support from Burger Collection and the TOY Family.
MOVANA CHEN Based between Hong Kong and Lisbon. Movana Chen’s multidisciplinary practice is rooted in the exploration of communication across cultures, deconstructing and reconstructing books, dictionaries, maps and recently with travel documents as her material to create sculptural installations that weave connection between people offer messages of hope and togetherness, love and trust. Her work is a fusion of media, performance, installation and sculpture. Her work has been shown widely, recently including at the Turkish Textile Biennial (2025), Hangzhou Triennial of Fiber Art (2025), M+ Museum, Hong Kong (2024), the 3rd Thailand Biennale, Chiang Rai (2023–24), CHAT 5th anniversary exhibition, Hong Kong (2024) and the Asia Art Archive, Hong Kong (2024). Chen’s works are included in the collections of M+ Museum, CHAT (Centre for Heritage, Arts and Textile), Hong Kong, QAGMA (Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art), Australia, The Burger Collection, Hong Kong and Switzerland, Galila Barzilai Collection, Belgium and the Hong Kong Heritage Museum. Chen studied Fashion Design at the London College of Fashion, UK, and Fine Art at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) in Hong Kong.
A CONVERSATION WITH MOVANA CHEN:
FLOWERS GALLERY Accompanying Movana Chen’s performances of Questioning the Line is a spotlight at Flowers Gallery, Cork Street. This body of work from Movana Chen extends her longstanding exploration of place and connection. Maps sourced from across the world are shredded and knitted together by hand, fragmenting the familiar words, grids, symbols and borders of cartography and transforming them into intricate sculptural forms. Installed as a constellation, the works retain remnants of their geographic origins while dissolving the boundaries that once defined them. Established in London in 1970 by Angela Flowers (1932—2023), Flowers Gallery represents international artists and estates working with a wide range of media in contemporary and Modern art. For over five decades, the gallery has presented more than 900 exhibitions across its global locations, also supporting the production of editions and publications, and installations at art fairs, public galleries, museums, and institutions around the world. Today, the gallery is directed by Angela’s son, Matthew Flowers, with spaces in London and Hong Kong, and a team in New York.
Movana Chen, Kansai #2, 2025, knitted shredded maps of Kansai,
Movana Chen Kyoto #6 (1913), 2025
A DOUBLE BILL FROM TAIWAN’S D_ANTIDOTE PRODUCTION
NON ORDINARY SERVICES A UK PREMIERE FROM “THE MOST PROMISING CHOREOGRAPHER OF THE NEXT GENERATION”
AND THE RETURN OF EDINBURGH FRINGE SMASH-HIT
PALINGENESIS ★★★★
The List UK
★★★★
The Stage
★★★★
Broadway Baby
“LIFE IN ITS BAREST, MOST OOZING, ALIEN FORM.” (THE LIST UK)
G W A N T O N1 G8
AMBIGUOUS DANCE COMPANY’S
BORAM KIM
AN EXHILARATING DANCE SOLO. A BODY PUSHED TO ITS LIMIT.
ONE ARTIST. TWO AIS.
AN IMMERSIVE CONCERT GENERATED IN REAL TIME.
<FRANKENTACIT> TACIT GROUP
THE CORONET THEATRE TEAM Artistic Director & CEO Anda Winters
Box Office Assistant Ivana Dieli
Audience Experience Manager Giudi Di Gesaro
Duty Managers Francesca Battinieri, Annabelle Gardner, Joanna Papanastassiou, Aylin Rodoplu, Hazel Townsend
Company & Production Coordinator Emma Smith Consultant Producer Hetty Shand Finance Manager Andrew Michel Technical Manager Louis Williams Marketing Manager (Freelance) Elliot Hall Poetry Coordinator Marion Manning PR Consultant Sharon Kean Producer Daphne Seale Producing & Marketing Assistant Esme Bishop Theatre Administrator / PA to the Artistic Director Vihaan Chandy
Front of House Staff Matilda Badziak, Eugénie Bakker, Samya Bose-Rosling, Theo Chen, Stephanie Christodoulidou, Marcello Crisci, Merilee Ettia-Russell, Cheryl Fairon, Katrina Foster, Trey Francis, Thea Gavanski, Alessandra Gonnella, Hugo Gregg, Li Ikoku-Smith, Dane Kostic, Emma Laird-Craig, Maria Lisberg-Jonasson, Aija Miranda, Hamza Mullick, Andreane Rellou, Robert Veng, Kajsa Wiberg-Norquist Trustees Linda Bernhardt, Mike Fisher, Mimi Gilligan, Jane Quinn, Anda Winters, Bill Winters (Chair) Thank you to our patrons for their generous support: Honorary Trustee Mimi Gilligan Cupola Mike Fisher and T. S. Eliot Foundation Club Room Tom and Maarit Glocer, Julia and Scott Rochester, and Jane Quinn
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