Living Traces, A Research-Based Live Art Project Between Nature, the Body, and the Porous City / HRC, LAB-U
Event details
| Date | 17.09.2026 |
| Hour | 14:00 › 16:00 |
| Speaker | Presenter: Shyam Sunder Sirimalla; Performer: CHADO |
| Location |
SG FOYER
|
| Category | Conferences - Seminars |
| Event Language | French, English |
Thursday, 17th September 2026, 14:00
Venue: SG Foyer, EPFL (Architecture Building)
The concept of "Nature, Body, and Porous City," explored by CHADO, a Japanese calligraphy dancer from Hiroshima, is based on the research theme "Porous City" at the Habitat Research Center, EPFL. Just as cities emerge through an ongoing dialogue between human and natural processes, artworks also arise through the interaction of water, earth, and the human body. Using water and earth from Hiroshima as her ink, she creates works where nature, culture, place, and people converge in a single moment.
This event is curated together with the Habitat Research Center and the laboratory of Urbanism research on Porous City thematic, combining the PhD thesis presentation and the dance by Chado. Planned in two parts Research & Art.
14:00 – 15:00: Research thematic presentation (The Spaces of Encounters, Porous city)
15:00 – 15:20: Discussion
15:20 – 16:00: Art: CHADO Dance performance
16:00 ~ : Apero and networking
CHADO is an artist who created the expression "Mai-Sho" which fuses calligraphy and dance. From the experience of trading her mother's life for her own, she grapples with the question of what it means to live in the present as the central theme of her life. The turning point came in 2014 when she began weaving words with brush and ink on the streets, inspired by a street poet she met during her student days, leading to the birth of "Mai Sho" during her first large-scale performance in 2015. This creative zone became the source of her vitality and the foundation of her work. After encountering Tosa washi paper in 2018 and embarking on a solo tour in Europe, she immersed herself in traditional cultures
such as ink stones, brushes, and Japanese dance, elevating her performances that aim to fuse Japanese tradition and innovation while expanding her activities abroad. By drawing with ink made from the local water and soil on the ink stone, she embodies a unique approach where the local nature, culture, and human energy blend together to create new life, garnering high resonance both domestically and internationally, leading to invitations from projects sponsored by the Saudi Arabian government, the Ministry of Culture in Mali, and various Japanese cultural initiatives across Europe. Rooted in Hiroshima, she nurtures a vision of peace.
How can live art reveal the invisible relationships between nature, the human body, and the continuous formation of landscape?
The concept of "Nature, Body, and Porous City," explored by CHADO, a Japanese calligraphy dancer from Hiroshima, is based on the research theme "Porous City(Sirimalla 2026, Viganò & Secchi 2011)" at the Laboratory of Urbanism and Habitat Research Center, EPFL. Cities are often perceived as completed structures designed by humans. In reality, they are
continuously transformed through the interactions of water, topography, vegetation, climate, human activities, and time.For CHADO, art is not something imposed upon nature. Nature itself is an active participant in creation. Her dance explores these relationship. Using water and earth from Hiroshima as her ink, she creates works where nature, culture, place, and people converge in a single moment. This project brings these two perspectives together. Just as cities emerge through an ongoing dialogue between human intervention and natural processes, artworks also arise through the interaction of water, earth, and the human body. Through live performance, this research investigates how humans and nature leave traces together, and how these traces become part of the continuous formation of landscape.
Venue: SG Foyer, EPFL (Architecture Building)
The concept of "Nature, Body, and Porous City," explored by CHADO, a Japanese calligraphy dancer from Hiroshima, is based on the research theme "Porous City" at the Habitat Research Center, EPFL. Just as cities emerge through an ongoing dialogue between human and natural processes, artworks also arise through the interaction of water, earth, and the human body. Using water and earth from Hiroshima as her ink, she creates works where nature, culture, place, and people converge in a single moment.
This event is curated together with the Habitat Research Center and the laboratory of Urbanism research on Porous City thematic, combining the PhD thesis presentation and the dance by Chado. Planned in two parts Research & Art.
14:00 – 15:00: Research thematic presentation (The Spaces of Encounters, Porous city)
15:00 – 15:20: Discussion
15:20 – 16:00: Art: CHADO Dance performance
16:00 ~ : Apero and networking
CHADO is an artist who created the expression "Mai-Sho" which fuses calligraphy and dance. From the experience of trading her mother's life for her own, she grapples with the question of what it means to live in the present as the central theme of her life. The turning point came in 2014 when she began weaving words with brush and ink on the streets, inspired by a street poet she met during her student days, leading to the birth of "Mai Sho" during her first large-scale performance in 2015. This creative zone became the source of her vitality and the foundation of her work. After encountering Tosa washi paper in 2018 and embarking on a solo tour in Europe, she immersed herself in traditional cultures
such as ink stones, brushes, and Japanese dance, elevating her performances that aim to fuse Japanese tradition and innovation while expanding her activities abroad. By drawing with ink made from the local water and soil on the ink stone, she embodies a unique approach where the local nature, culture, and human energy blend together to create new life, garnering high resonance both domestically and internationally, leading to invitations from projects sponsored by the Saudi Arabian government, the Ministry of Culture in Mali, and various Japanese cultural initiatives across Europe. Rooted in Hiroshima, she nurtures a vision of peace.
How can live art reveal the invisible relationships between nature, the human body, and the continuous formation of landscape?
The concept of "Nature, Body, and Porous City," explored by CHADO, a Japanese calligraphy dancer from Hiroshima, is based on the research theme "Porous City(Sirimalla 2026, Viganò & Secchi 2011)" at the Laboratory of Urbanism and Habitat Research Center, EPFL. Cities are often perceived as completed structures designed by humans. In reality, they are
continuously transformed through the interactions of water, topography, vegetation, climate, human activities, and time.For CHADO, art is not something imposed upon nature. Nature itself is an active participant in creation. Her dance explores these relationship. Using water and earth from Hiroshima as her ink, she creates works where nature, culture, place, and people converge in a single moment. This project brings these two perspectives together. Just as cities emerge through an ongoing dialogue between human intervention and natural processes, artworks also arise through the interaction of water, earth, and the human body. Through live performance, this research investigates how humans and nature leave traces together, and how these traces become part of the continuous formation of landscape.
Links
Practical information
- General public
- Free