We Apologize to Inform You — Hannover

We Apologize to Inform You — Hannover is a site-specific performance work by Xiao Ke × Zi Han. It builds a dialogue between individual action and social realities, articulating the artists’ concerns. Giving up the conventional theatre stage, the artists move into public space, reflecting their own situation of making art in Shanghai. The work connects live performance with everyday life, reducing technical decoration while building strong images magnified from reality through performance, installation, and visual art.

The title highlights potential violence in daily life. We are accustomed to accepting already-decided results, such as announcements of flight delays; yet this is not only about common delays, but also individual rights, a shared reality in China and elsewhere. Political power attempts to re-educate people to accept its purposes. In the performance, Xiao Ke and Zi Han take up typical behaviour and magnify its energy as an alarm to awaken people.

We Apologize to Inform You developed three versions in China, Japan, and Germany. For each version, Xiao Ke × Zi Han conducted research in different locations and developed related but distinct performances from each local situation.