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The work explores themes such as trauma, discipline, and transformation and is inspired by Pina Bausch's groundbreaking practice in contemporary dance. Bausch was known for her ability to reveal fragility, anger, and raw emotions beneath the surface of human experience-an influence that is deeply embedded in Duoni's installation. This shoe-testing machine that relentlessly hammers pointe shoes in sync with the rhythm of Le Sacre du Printemps. This mechanically precise, repetitive motion alludes to the physical and emotional endurance demanded of ballet dancers-especially those who appear as the "Chosen Ones" in Duoni's own reinterpretation of the iconic performance. Around the machine, worn-out and discarded pointe shoes lie on the floor—an evocative testament to the sacrifice, pain, and ultimate exhaustion of body and mind in the relentless pursuit of dance perfection. By contrasting the merciless precision of the machine with the vulnerability of the used pointe shoes, Duoni critiques the absurdity and brutality of traditional ballet practices. At the same time, Spitzen Warentest can also be understood as a tribute to Bausch's radical artistic vision, which broke with classical ideals and redefined dance as a space for emotional honesty and human truth.

Spitzen Warentest

SOUND INSTALLATION, Kunstmuseum Solingen

Un bel dì vedremo…..

The Egyptian pyramids, as symbols of a vast cultural and historical legacy, have often been appropriated in Western representations to evoke the ‘mystical’ and ‘timeless’ East. This Orientalism creates a contrast between the ‘civilized’ West and the ‘exotic’ East, based on the made up ‘otherness’ of Eastern civilizations. As monumental structures, pyramids encapsulate the tensions within cultural memory, frequently used in Western discourse to emphasize this ‘otherness’ while also serving as a backdrop for imperial narratives.

Duoni’s sound installation becomes a powerful medium for examining the relationship between Orientalism and Western opera, a lens through which Western perceptions of the East have long been filtered. Through her collage of famous Western opera masterpieces, set beneath this symbolic architecture in Monheim, she seeks to reveal the hidden traces of Orientalism embedded in the sacred realm of Western opera, raising awareness of the prejudice and consequently the sexism—that one experiences as an Asian woman living in the West.

Sound Installation
in Mack-Pyramide Monheim

VERHÖR

(Interrogation/Misheard)

is a quadrophonic audio-visual work. It is a collage of composed dialogues between Amanda Knox, Steven Avery, Brendan Dassey with music excerpts. It deals with the conscious and unconscious manipulation of hearing.

With this piece, Duoni wanted to contrast the mishearing (German: Verhören) as an acoustic phenomenon with the (police) interrogation (German: Verhör), i.e. the interrogation of a person and the associated potential misunderstandings and distortions of statements. It combined different elements: on the one hand, she arranged “dialogue” between Amanda Knox, Steven Avery and Brendan Dassey, as well as the police and journalists as a sound collage. On the other hand, she have put together excerpts from well-known pop music songs and other works that are famous for containing “misheard lyrics”. These excerpts are sometimes very short and sometimes only contain the text that is often misunderstood by the listener. This element shows the aspect of interrogation as a failure of human hearing or understanding. Also, the reason for the choice of the music samples containing misheard lyrics may not be obvious to all listeners, creating an additional layer of “manipulated” misunderstanding and/or mishearing.

all about

‘Oops!

I dropped my….’

Oops! I dropped my species

Oops! I dropped my minecart

“Oops! I dropped my…” is a series of compositions by Duoni, through which she removes contemporary art from its usual conceptual framework and creates an interactive discourse between artist, audience, and city.

For this series, Duoni Liu (in collaboration with others) creates a graphic score. This score is based on the layout of a selected route that extends through alleys, squares, or streets of a city, or moves around a specific location or in and around a particular building. Whenever possible, this route is intended to include historically and socially significant as well as culturally interesting places.