ASIAN DOPE BOYS

Chinese multidisciplinary artist Tianzhuo Chen, aka ASIAN DOPE BOYS, joins forces with Berlin-based musician Alex Wang for the 17th episode of Kuboraum’s Digital Sound Residency, unveiling ‘Burning Sage’—a dystopian blend of noise, nu-metal, and sci-fi-infused sound fragments.

Tianzhuo Chen, a.k.a AsianDopeBoys, has never known how to define himself. As an artist who engages with various ‘happenings’ of liminality, he enjoys crashing, merging, infusing, mutating, teasing, substituting, and playing with boundaries. More accurately, he (re-)invents boundaries and then destroys them. Trained as a swimmer, Tianzhuo is drawn to the undercurrents of existence and the benthic fables of life and death, often finding himself adrift in the tectonic wonders of unknown lands. To explore such tantric knowledge and the obscure wisdom of the unknown, he observes, draws, collects, crafts, installs, edits, interweaves, creates, mixes, and remixes, all in an attempt to sense, capture, and share the fleeting beauty of life, which is nothing less than magic and ecstasy.

Selected solo exhibitions to date include Illuminated Spirits at TANK Shanghai, The Shepherd at Kyoto Experiment and Trance at M Woods Museum in Beijing. Following a delay of several years, his ambitious 12-hour theatrical piece TRANCE – realized with an international ensemble – has premiered at leading performance venues worldwide, including at the Sonic Acts Biennial 2024.

His latest piece, Ocean Cage, was premiered in Berlin’s Hebbel Am Ufer and is being perfomed in major venues worldwide like Kyoto Experiment, Tanzhaus Dusseldorf, Arsenic Lausanne and Kampnagel Hamburg.

Alex Wang is a Berlin-based musician hailing from one of the coldest regions of China. His work is deeply influenced by the harsh natural environment of his hometown and his early training in classical and electronic music. This peculiar combination has sparked his fascination with the “deafening illusion”—an explosive blend of bass and noise that surprises with sudden shifts, constantly pushing the boundaries of soundscapes through ongoing exploration.

‘Burning Sage’ will be available to download by subscribing to Kuboraum Berlin News

Credits:

Music by: Alex Wang

Directed and Edited by: Tianzhuo Chen

Starring: Omi, Lavinia Vago