A Duo, initiator of new folk music, inheritor of intangible cultural heritage: drum dance and martial arts drum of the Miao nationality 

The work “Born a Drum Queen” presented in this exhibition is inspired from the nursery rhythm from A Duo’s hometown, which locates in the west of Hunan Province. She remembered the scene when she was a child, getting warm aside the firewood. The rhyme from childhood sings “The fume, do not blind me. I am the plum blossom from the sky”, which mixes and innovates both the traditional culture and artwork. In the music video, in the scenes of drumming and dancing, two stages use the visual comparison to illustrate the process from initial competition to the later integration of the original dancers and the modern dancers. This also tells the fusion of new folk music, Chinese trendy culture and traditional culture, and among different people. Accompanied by the strong beats of drums, A Duo and dancers started a conversation between both tradition and modernity, fashion and classics, further leading to an avant-garde production.

“Water Knows”, the first NFT digital music production in mainland China

A Duo was inspired by the nature to create a whole new series of sound exploring art. She expressed her perception of everything through pleasantmusic, and with it, she explored and met the world. 

“Water Knows” was solely created by A Duo. She integrated herself via music, into the naturalistic observation of the vast universe. Sound-wise, the song approached with novelty, using human voices, universal sounds in imagination, and signals of pulsars as sampling. Water sounds mimicked by human voices demonstrated the bond between human ad nature. With human humming, the advantage of human voices was fully unleashed. A Duo self creates a language in music called “Zhi Yu”, which serves as a bridge to make people connect with all the things in the world. This brand-new language system also works as a window for us to observe life and nature. Pulsars signals from outer space record the true sound of the universe, which gradually attracts the energy field. Sounds derive from the nature, converse with the universe, full of philosophical thoughts of life. Three kinds of sounds, through remixing, integrate and intertwine, representing the communication and interchange of cognition and energy between human and universe, demonstrating a massive space outlook with extensibility of “Water Knows”.

Creative list 

Choreographer of “Born a Drum Queen”: Choreographer of Tokyo Olympics Tomohiko Tsujimoto

Special guest: Victoria Lu

Original intangible cultural heritage singers: Xiangzhen Long, Meiai Wang

Cover design of “Water Knows”: US cutting-edge digital designer YoYoXiao

Sound mixing: US experienced mixing master Paul David Hager

Designer of tents for the exhibition: Trendy artist Wenjing Lv