Walker Art Center presents
Eiko Otake & Wen Hui
What Is War
Friday and Saturday, April 11–12, 2025
7:30 pm
McGuire Theater
What Is War
Collaboratively created and performed by EIKO OTAKE and WEN HUI
Lighting Design by DAVID A. FERRI
Dramaturgy by IRIS MCCLOUGHAN
The mirror was designed by CARINA ROCKART and constructed by PAUL MARTIN and HOLLY WENGER
What Is War is commissioned by the Walker Art Center. Co-commissioned by CAP UCLA (UCLA’s Center for the Art of Performance), Jacob’s Pillow, and the Colorado College Theater & Dance Department.
Wen Hui and Eiko fondly remember Fred Frumberg (1960-2024) of CAP UCLA (UCLA’s Center for the Art of Performance), a friend and inspiration. You held a steadfast belief in working across borders and in taking the time to create lasting relationships. We thank you, Fred, for trusting us to do the same.
Tonight’s performance runs approximately one hour with no intermission.
A post-show Q&A with the artists will follow Friday’s performance.
Please join us in the Cityview Bar after Saturday’s performance to meet the artists and continue conversation about the work.
Accessibility Notes
This performance contains nudity and themes of war.
Audio description (AD) is planned for the Friday performance.
For more information about accessibility, visit our Access page.
For questions on accessibility, content and sensory notes or to request additional accommodations, call 612-253-3556 or email access@walkerart.org.
About our Collaboration
Eiko has lived in New York and worked in America since 1976. Wen Hui, a Chinese citizen, currently lives in Frankfurt, Germany. We met in 1995 when we both were invited to perform and saw each other’s work at the Guandong International Theater Festival, the first experimental theater festival in China. We got to know each other better during Wen Hui’s year-long fellowship from 1997-1998 in the U.S.
In 2020, Eiko had a month-long fellowship in China during which we spent every day together, talking about everything. We also learned each of our family history relating to the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945), a part of the World War ll. Eiko was deeply moved by Wen Hui’s friends and family who opened their hearts despite Japan’s war time occupation of China.
When Wen Hui’s subsequent visit to New York had to be cancelled due to the pandemic, we decided to look back at the footage we made in China and co-edit a film with Yiru Chen. The process of making the film, No Rule Is Our Rule, required frequent long-distance communication, which also built the foundation for What Is War.
We encourage you to watch No Rule is Our Rule, as well as three of our other short films, in the Walker’s Bentson Mediatheque. The free full playlist is available for self-select viewing April 3 to 17. No Rule is Our Rule will loop Friday, April 11, and Saturday, April 12, from 10am-5pm, and again on Thursday, April 17, from 6-9pm.
– Wen Hui and Eiko Otake
A Note From Eiko Otake
The current constitution of Japan was drafted by American civilian officials during the occupation of Japan after World War II. It was adopted on November 3, 1946, and came into effect on May 3, 1947. Not a single word has been changed since.
Article 9 states: Aspiring sincerely to an international peace based on justice and order, the Japanese people forever renounce war as a sovereign right of the nation and the threat or use of force as means of settling international disputes.
In order to accomplish the aim of the preceding paragraph, land, sea, and air forces, as well as other war potential, will never be maintained. The right of belligerency of the state will not be recognized.
Everyone who taught me about World War II is now dead. I remember their voices. Article 9 is in my body.
Wen Hui wishes to share her letter to Eriko Ikeda with the audience members
Dear Eriko Ikeda!
My name is Wen Hui, a dancer/choreographer from China. I also make documentary films. My past works have focused on women’s bodily autonomy and body memory. I have been a friend of Eiko for 30 years. She said you are her friend since high school and she told you about me and our collaboration on What is War.
When Eiko visited me in Beijing, she said she wanted to go to the Nanjing Massacre Museum, which surprised me because, though I was never there, I imagined it would be an uncomfortable place for a Japanese person. Her desire moved me and we went there together.
At the site of Lijixiang "Comfort Station” Eiko told me that you are the one of the founders of Women’s Active Museum in Tokyo, which have shown stories of “Comfort Women” from different countries, and that you have for decades supported and fought with these victims and their family members. I heard you organized Women’s International War Crimes Tribunal on Japan’s Military Sexual Slavery.
Eiko also showed me many DVDs you directed, produced, filmed, and edited. We watched them many times. We realized that many people talk about war, but less people talk about the harm done to women in war. During our creative process, I wanted to include one story of the “comfort women,” by including one interview from your documentary film. We'd love to hear your suggestions. Of course, if you don't think it's appropriate, we will not do it. We will respect your advice. As a Chinese woman, I understand how courageous they are in their old age to come out to share their stories and seek justice. I deeply respect them and your work.
I look forward to meeting you and your colleagues.
Wen Hui
Learn More
Read a trilogy of interviews with the artists and Rachel Cooper, Director of Global Cultural Diplomacy at Asia Society, on Walker Reader:
Every War Belongs to You: Wen Hui on What is War
We All Have War in Our Bodies: Eiko Otake on What is War
Eiko Otake and Wen Hui on What is War
Read about Eiko Otake’s 44-year history collaborating with the Walker:
Eiko Otake: 44 Years at the Walker
Learn more about “Comfort Houses” and “Comfort Women”:
Lijixiang "Comfort Station” in Nanjing
Women’s Active Museum on War and Peace
Eiko’s and Wen Hui’s film, No Rule Is Our Rule, and other selected short works are currently on view at the Walker’s Mediatheque. Screening dates and times are here:
Self-select playlist available April 3 to 17
No Rule is Our Rule will loop April 11-12 from 10am-5pm, and again on April 17 6-9pm.
For future dates and the history of the project, please visit: https://www.eikootake.org/what-is-war
About the Artists
Eiko Otake
Born and raised in Japan and a resident of New York City since 1976, Eiko Otake is a movement-based, interdisciplinary artist. After working for more than 40 years as Eiko & Koma, she now works independently, performing as a soloist and directing her own projects. After studying with Kazuo Ohno and Tatsumi Hijikata in Japan and Manja Chmiel in Germany, Eiko & Koma created 43 performance works, three durational “living” installations, and many media works. Commissioners include the American Dance Festival, BAM Next Wave Festival, Joyce Theater, Kennedy Center, the Museum of Modern Art, the Walker Art Center, and the Whitney Museum, among others. In addition to performing their own choreography, Eiko & Koma handcrafted their own sets, costumes, and sound. The Walker Art Center has presented eight works of Eiko & Koma including Naked, a month-long living installation, and a dance for camera work Lament.
The Retrospective Project (2009-2012, produced by Sam Miller) culminated in two exhibitions, screenings of media works, and a comprehensive monograph of Eiko & Koma, Time is Not Even Space is Not Empty, published by the Walker Art Center.
Eiko & Koma were the first collaborative pair to share a MacArthur Fellowship (1996) and the first Asian choreographers to receive both the Samuel H. Scripps American Dance Festival Award (2004) and the Dance MagazineAward (2006). They were honored with the inaugural United States Artists Fellowship (2006) and the first Doris Duke Artist Awards (2012).
Eiko’s solo project, A Body in Places, began in 2014 with a 12-hour performance at the 30th Street Station in Philadelphia. Since then, she has performed site-specific variations of A Body in Places at 76 sites. In 2016, Eiko was the subject of the 10th annual Danspace Platform, a month-long curated program that brought her a special Bessie citation, an Art Matters grant, and the Anonymous Was a Woman Award. In 2021, Battery Park City, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council (LMCC) and New York University’s Skirball Center co-commissioned a monologue performance, Slow Turn, for the20-year anniversary of 9/11.
Eiko’s multi-dimensional project, A Body in Fukushima, is a decade-long collaboration with historian/photographer William Johnston. Since 2014, they have visited Fukushima, Japan five times to record Eiko performing alone for Johnston’s camera in the irradiated landscapes affected by the 2011 nuclear meltdown. Eiko has presented these photos in many exhibitions, lectures, memorial events, and performances. Their book of photography and essays, A Body in Fukushima, was published in 2021. A feature length film of the same title premiered in 2022 at the Museum of Modern Art’s Doc Fortnight Festival. It was screened in many film festivals, and was exhibited in the 2024 Yokohama Triennale.
In 2017, Eiko launched her multi-year Duet Project, a mutable and evolving series of experiments in collaboration. Eiko has worked with artists as diverse as David Harrington, Ishmael Houston-Jones, Joan Jonas, DonChristian Jones, Iris McCloughan, Beverly McIver, Mérian Soto, and her late grandfather, Chikuha Otake. The project has produced dance performances, talking duets, public dialogues, lectures, paintings, videos, and films.
In 2019, Eiko started her ten-year project, I Invited Myself, which exhibits and advocates for the videos and films she has created over the last 40 years. Working closely with museum and gallery curators, Eiko considers how viewers experience her media works in the space with and without her live body. For different iterations at Art Institute of Chicago, the Colorado Springs Fine Art Center, the Asian Arts Initiative in Philadelphia, and Fabric Workshop and Museum, also in Philadelphia, Eiko applied different logistics and themes in selecting and installing her works.
Eiko teaches an interdisciplinary course that combines movement study with a focus on mass violence and nuclear issues at New York University, Wesleyan University, and Colorado College, where she was awarded an honorary doctorate degree in 2020. (www.eikootake.org)
Wen Hui
Chinese choreographer and dancer Wen Huiis one of the pioneers of Chinese contemporary dance. She also makes documentary films and installations. For the past thirty years, Wen Hui has been using dance theater as a means of social intervention. Since 2008, she has been researching the body as a form of personal social documentation and experimenting with how bodily memory can catalyze the collision between history and reality.
A graduate of the Beijing Dance Academy in 1989 with a degree in choreography, Wen Hui studied modern dance in New York in 1994. She also received a 1997-1998 fellowship from the Asian Cultural Council to continue her studies in New York. From 1999-2000, she worked with Ralph Lemon’s Dance project, Geography Trilogy II – Trees, and toured the U.S. with the company including the BAM Next Wave Festival in New York in 2000.
In 1994, Wen Hui co-founded the first independent dance theater group in China, the Living Dance Studio, in Beijing. In 2005, Wen Hui and Wu Wenguang established the Caochangdi Workstation and co-curated The Crossing International Dance Festival in Beijing. The same year, they initiated The European Artists Exchange Project and Young Choreographers Project. In 2015, Wen Hui curated the ReActor Project at Shanghai Museum of Contemporary Art (Power Station of Shanghai).
Wen Hui’s work and that of the Living Dance Studio have been invited to perform at the most provocative international stages and festivals, including her Report on Body at the Walker Art Center in 2003. Her two films, Dance with Third Grandmother and Dance with Farm Workers, were shown in the Chinese Pavilion at the 2015 Venice Biennale. Dance Only Exists When It Is Performed is a set of two solo exhibitions featuring Yvonne Rainer and Wen Hui at the Beijing Inside-Out Art Museum in 2019. Her exhibition, The Arts of Memory, was shown at the Guangzhou Image Triennial in 2021. Wen Hui’s solo work, I am 60, was presented at Festival d’Automne in Paris and at the 2021 Ruhrtriennale in Germany. Her newest work, New Report on Giving Birth (2023), was also presented at the Festival d’Automne, Rhine-Main Dance Festival at Künstlerhaus Mousonturm in Frankfurt, HAU Hebbel am Ufer in Berlin, HELLERAU European Art Center in Dresden, and at PACT Zollverein in Essen.
In 2004, her Report on Body won the ZKB Patronage Prize by Zürcher Theater Spektakel.
In 2021, Wen Hui received the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, known as the Goethe Medal.
David Ferri (Lighting Designer)
David Ferri has worked with prominent choreographers such as Pina Bausch, Shen Wei, Doug Varone, Jane Comfort, Yin Mei, David Rousseve, and Ballet Preljocaj. He has been the Production Manager for the prestigious American Dance Festival since 1996 where he also trains up and coming American lighting designers. He received a 1987-1988 BESSIE AWARD for his design of Doug Varone’s Straits, and a 2000-2001 BESSIE AWARD for Sustained Achievement in Lighting Design. Mr Ferri is the resident Lighting Designer and Technical Director for The Vassar College Dance Department. He was also resident lighting designer and technical director at PS 122 from 1985-1991. He lives in New York between his travels and projects.
Iris McCloughan (Dramaturg)
Iris McCloughan is a director, performance maker, and writer in New York. Their original performance works have been presented in New York (Danspace Project, PAGEANT, BAX, The Poetry Project, Ars Nova, Movement Research at the Judson Church) Philadelphia (The Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia Contemporary, FringeArts), and elsewhere. Recent direction includes Sam Bell's Il bunkerini (Clubbed Thumb's Winterworks), Alex Tatarsky’s Sad Boys in Harpy Land (Playwrights Horizons), and Joan Jonas & Eiko Otake’s Drawing in Circles WHY? (Danspace Project / Castelli Gallery).
Iris is a past winner of the Stanley Kunitz Memorial Prize from the American Poetry Review. Their writing has appeared in American Poetry Review, Prelude, Tupelo Quarterly, juked, jubilat, Gertrude, Denver Quarterly, and the Queen Mob’s Teahouse, among many others. They are the author of three poetry chapbooks, including triptych (greying ghost, 2022) and Bones to Peaches (Seven Kitchens Press, 2021). Iris has collaborated with many artists and writers, including Eiko Otake, Joan Jonas, Mike Lala, Alex Tatarsky, Lena Engelstein + Lisa Fagin, Juliana May, Beth Gill, and Julie Mayo. They are the recipient of a 2024-2025 New Play Directing Fellowship from Clubbed Thumb and a member of the 2024-2025 Soho Rep Writer Director Lab.
Special Thanks
So many people have helped us to make this work. Thank you from Eiko and Wen Hui!!!!
This work and its presentation in the US are produced by INTA, Inc. Thank you to Paula Lawrence (President), Allison Hsu (Managing Director), and Sean Donovan (Development).
At the Walker Art Center, special thank you to Philip Bither for his vision and for commissioning this collaboration, to Julie Voigt and Robert Cosgrove of Walker’s Performing Arts department, to Wyatt Heatherington Tilka and the production team, and to Patricia Ledesma Villon of the Moving Image department. Eiko expresses gratitude to the many past curators, staff, and technicians with whom she has worked in the past and who nurtured her rich history with the Walker.
Special thank you to Cláudia Tatinge Nascimento for organizing the film screening and movement workshop at Macalester College and the dance dramaturgy panel at the Walker, and to our residency partners Playwrights’ Center and the University of Minnesota Department of Theatre Arts & Dance. Thank you to Eleanor Savage, Joan Rothfuss, Laurie Van Wieren, Chitra Vairavan, Ananya Chatterjea, Chris Holman, Morgan Thorson, and many more friends and artists of the Twin Cities for rich conversations and support.
Thank you to our co-commissioners Edgar Miramontes, Meryl Friedman, and late Fred Frumberg of UCLA’s Center for the Art of Performance (CAP UCLA), Pamela Tatge of Jacob’s Pillow, and Shawn Womack of Colorado College.
For our creative residency at Duke University, thank you to Jinqiu Guan for spearheading our creative residency and for filming our process. Thank you to Aaron Shackelford and Andrea E. Wood Valdes for hosting a residency and to Jodee Nimerichter of ADF (American Dance Festival) for offering studio space.
For a month-long creative residency at Colorado College, thank you to Shawn for her decades-long support. Thank you to Paul Martin and Holly Wenger for your extraordinary help in set making, coordinating the tech ideas, and running showings. Thank you to the Department of Theater and Dance for gifting the set material. Deeply grateful for Madison Dillon, Max Sarkowsky, and Soren Kodak for help and advice. Thank you to Patrizia Herminjard for filming rehearsals and to Peggy Berg and Jonathan Lee for feedback. Laura Hymers Tregila, Phil Treglia, and Sarah Hautzinger shared their different experiences of war and military.
For a creative residency at MASS MoCA, thank you to Kristy Edmunds, Sue Killam, Victoria Frey, Meghan Labbee, and helpful members of the tech team. Thank you to John Killacky and Liz Thompson for their heartfelt advice.
For a residency at University of Texas, Austin, thank you to Rosemary Candelario and her colleagues for asking us present “show and tell” about this project and responding to that deeply.
Thank you to Cheri Opperman, Indira Goodwine-Josias, and Kristin Gregory of the New England Foundation for the Arts’ National Dance Project and Megan Kiskaddon for her advocacy in NDP.Thank you tothe National Endowment for the Arts and New York State Council for the Arts in supporting this project. Also thank you to the Asian Cultural Council and the Beijing Contemporary Art Foundation for supporting Eiko’s residency in China in 2020 and the production of No Rule Is Our Rule in 2024.
Thank you to Yang Meiqi, then artistic director of The Guangdong Modern Dance Company, and to Charles and the late Stephanie Reinhart of ADF for enabling Eiko and Koma’s first visit to China in 1995, when they met Wen Hui.
Thank you to Anna Wagner and Marcus Droß, Katja Armknecht, and Alexandra Hennig at Künstlerhaus Mousonturm. Thank you to Yiru Chen, Cecily Cook, Rachel Cooper (Asia Society), Gloria McLean, Carol Yinghua Lu (the Inside-Out Museum in Beijing), Eriko Ikeda (Women’s Active Museum on War and Peace), the Goethe Institute in Beijing, Yixue Shao, Zhang Suqin, and Zhen Zhang, Wen Bin, and Lao Xiujuan, Wen Hui’s mother, for sharing her childhood experiences with war.
Lastly, a very special thank you to Elise-Ann Konstantin and Andi Floyd for their expertise that made Wen Hui’s participation in this project possible.
Living Land Acknowledgment
The McGuire Theater and Walker Art Center are located on the contemporary, traditional, and ancestral homelands of the Dakota people. Situated near Bde Maka Ska and Wíta Tópa Bde, or Lake of the Isles, on what was once an expanse of marshland and meadow, this site holds meaning for Dakota, Ojibwe, and Indigenous people from other Native nations, who still live in the community today.
We acknowledge the discrimination and violence inflicted on Indigenous peoples in Minnesota and the Americas, including forced removal from ancestral lands, the deliberate destruction of communities and culture, deceptive treaties, war, and genocide. We recognize that, as a museum in the United States, we have a colonial history and are beneficiaries of this land and its resources. We acknowledge the history of Native displacement that allowed for the founding of the Walker. By remembering this dark past, we recognize its continuing harm in the present and resolve to work toward reconciliation, systemic change, and healing in support of Dakota people and the land itself.
We honor Native people and their relatives, past, present, and future. As a cultural organization, the Walker works toward building relationships with Native communities through artistic and educational programs, curatorial and community partnerships, and the presentation of new work.
Acknowledgments
Producers' Council
About the Walker Art Center
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To learn more about upcoming performances, visit 2024/25 Walker Performing Arts Season.
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