14:00-16:00 - Workshop

In this workshop, acclaimed guqin artist Wu Na invites musicians, artists and cross-disciplinary creators into a rare encounter with one of China’s oldest musical traditions — reimagined for the twenty-first century.

In this workshop, guqin artist Wu Na invites musicians, artists and cross-disciplinary creators into a rare encounter with one of China’s oldest musical traditions — reimagined for the twenty-first century. Drawing on her pioneering work across jazz, rock, experimental music, theatre and digital arts, Wu Na reveals how the guqin can function not only as an instrument but as a philosophy of listening.

Participants will explore techniques of resonance, breath, gesture and silence, and experiment with ways in which ancient timbres interact with contemporary aesthetics. Through improvisation, guided listening and collaborative exercises, Wu Na opens a space where intuition becomes method and where cultural heritage becomes a laboratory for artistic innovation.

16:30-18:00 - Film: Broken Silence (De oogst van de stilte)

In this documentary, we are introduced to five Chinese composers who most vividly represent how artists can integrate their shared cultural background into their present-day lives—each in a wholly personal way. The film unfolds across a triangle of places: New York, the “new world”; Paris, the old Europe; and China.

In 1978, thousands of students applied to the Beijing Conservatory; only two hundred were admitted. China’s “Open Door” policy had just ended a dramatic chapter in its history, and most students carried almost no cultural baggage. The now internationally acclaimed composer Tan Dun, living in New York, had never seen a violin before the age of twenty; he had only heard the compulsory model operas.