Milestones
2023
27-28 Dec Liu Xiaoyi was invited to be the judge for the “Golden Dove Egg” Youth Incubation Program of the 2nd Shenzhen Bay Area Youth Theatre Season.
22 Dec Liu Xiaoyi was invited as a guest observer and commentator at the The New Wave of Performing Arts Project for International Female Artists in Chongqing, where he presented his insights on artist residencies and the ecology of female artists in Asia and Europe.
2 Dec Liu Xiaoyi was awarded two prizes in the Golden Point Awards, Singapore’s most prestigious creative writing competition: first prize in the fiction category and third prize in the poetry category.
27 Nov-1 Dec Liu Xiaoyi held a creative workshop Creativity and Me in Topu Town, exploring the themes of physical expression, public space, symbol building, storytelling, and structural awareness with participants.
Nov Decameron – Dialogues on arts between Danny Yung and Liu Xiaoyi in the time of Corona was published.
30 Oct Liu Xiaoyi created the opening performance I Got My Eye On You for the Topu Town International Animation Week.
16-22 Oct Liu Xiaoyi, Danny Yung and Mathias Woo presented three works of One Table Two Chairs at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, Singapore. Liu Xiaoyi’s work School of Thought, performed by Makoto Matsushima and Didik Nini Thowok, explored the history and future of art education.
Oct Liu Xiaoyi was invited by the Europe Asia Foundation to conduct a series of strategic studies on arts funding in China.
23 Sept Liu Xiaoyi was awarded the Medal for Contribution to Arts and Cultural Heritage by the Faculty of Humanities, Nanyang Technological University.
16-26 Aug Liu Xiaoyi participated in the Xikou Theatre Festival as convener, mentor and judge.
30 July-5 Aug Liu Xiaoyi was invited by Ergao Dance Production Group to Guangzhou to lead the 11th Creative Lab with Ergao (Guangzhou) and Chiu Chih-Hua (Taipei). Liu Xiaoyi’s workshop centered around his idea of “self-agency”.
1 July Liu Xiaoyi was invited to be the artist-in-residence at Topu Town, Nantong.
June Liu Xiaoyi is invited by the Center for East Asian Studies at the University of Göttingen, Germany, as co-curator of the Contemporary Asian Performing Arts and Performance Art Season.
13 May Liu Xiaoyi gave a lecture titled Artists of the Future: Self-Agency as a Strategy to the first comprehensive service NPO organization in China’s art management field, “Art Management View”.
19 Apr Liu Xiaoyi was invited by the University of California, Irvine – Illuminations: The Chancellor’s Arts & Culture Initiative as a speaker at the Global Conversations | Sinophone Experimental Performance.
18 Apr-18 May Liu Xiaoyi conducted the 6+1 Not Only For Performance Workshop in Hong Kong, with 20 young artists participating. Two new works named Death of God created.
15 Apr-7 May The first Sphix Meta Theatre Festival was held in Beijing. Liu Xiaoyi‘s play The Trade, co-written with AI in his 2021-2022 research on Writing with AI, was staged at the festival, directed by Beijing director Cheng Wenming.
March Liu Xiaoyi became a columnist for the International Association of Theatre Critics (Hong Kong), writing articles such as The Death of Cultural Criticism and Networking of Cultural Criticism, discussing Hong Kong’s cultural critique environment.
6 Jan Two video works produced by Emergency Stairs in 2020, Postdramatic Theatre – Pushing Boundaries and Southernmost Project – Crossing Boundaries, were presented to Chinese audiences in a solo exhibition at the Jiangfeng Theatre Bazaar during the first International Light and Shadow Festival in Chongqing, China.
Jan Liu Xiaoyi continued to be the Artist-in-Residence of Zuni Icosahedron in Hong Kong.
2022
8-9 Dec Liu Xiaoyi delivered his speech “Crossing-overs as Strategy” during The 1st International Symposium on Contemporary Asian Theatre (ISCAT), organised by University of Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany.
14-21 Nov as part of the team of Zuni Icosahedron, Liu Xiaoyi traveled to Chulalongkorn University of Bangkok, Thailand to participate in a series of cultural exchange programmes, where he co-chair a cultural conference and conducted several exchange workshops.
10-20 Nov Emergency Stairs collaborated with the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts (NAFA) to present two productions: Offending the Audience (directed by Ang Gey Pin) and Dream School 理想学校 (directed by Li Xie).
11 Nov Liu Xiaoyi received the Outstanding Young Alumni Award from Nanyang Technological University
10 Oct-8 Nov Liu Xiaoyi took part in the Online Residency program “Let’s (not) Talk about Political Correctness” by OpenScape. OpenScape is an initiative of Reso – Swiss Dance Network and supported by the Transformation Fund of Canton Zurich and Pro Helvetia.
21 Sep Liu Xiaoyi was invited to be a guest lecturer at the Tokyo Art Festival Farm and gave a lecture on the topic of “Digitalization as a Strategy”.
9-26 Sep as part of the team of Zuni Icosahedron, Liu Xiaoyi traveled to Wrocław and Gdańsk of Poland to participate in the Inlandimensional International Arts Festival, where he co-chair a cultural symposium and conducted several physical workshops and lectures.
4-14 Aug Liu Xiaoyi was invited to be one of three international curators for Summerworks Festival (Toronto)’s Artists at Work programme. He invited Chinese artist Xiao Ke to co-create an online work: The Other Side of the Story.
1 Jul Liu Xiaoyi departed for Hong Kong for his second residency at Zuni Icosahedron.
1 Jun 24 new members from 12 cities have joined the second edition (2022-2024) of Emergency Academy.
31 Mar 16 artists from 10 cities has completed their 2-year journey in the first edition (2020-2022) of Emergency Academy.
31 Mar Writing with AI concluded.
22 Mar The Spirits Play Online concluded.
2021
15 Oct Liu Xiaoyi started Writing with AI, which is part of Emergency Stairs’ No More Theatre, an exploration of new theatre forms.
15 Sep Liu Xiaoyi started The Spirits Play Online, which is part of Emergency Stairs’ The Future Aisa Project, a continuation of the Southernmost Project and a long-term intercultural exchange and performance creation.
12 Jul The launch of The Decameron 十日谈 – an online programme consisting of a series of dialogues between Danny Yung (Hong Kong) and Liu Xiaoyi.
18 May Asian City Crossings is published. This book edited by Rossella Ferrari and Ashley Thorpe, is the first volume to examine the relationship between the city and performance from an Asian perspective. As one of the contributors, Liu Xiaoyi discusses the concept of The Southernmost project in the book.
17 Apr Liu Xiaoyi was invited to Hong Kong to be the artists-in-residence 2021 of Zuni Icosahedron.
31 Mar – No More Theatre, a research and development project supported under Liu Xiaoyi’s Young’s Young Artist Award Grant concluded.
29- 30 Jan Emergency Shelter presented OFFSTAGE 3.0 under the M1 Fringe in venue as well as online (in response to COVID-19 social distancing rules)
2020
23 Nov – Emergency Stairs produced The Postdramatic Series- Pushing Boundaries, a video project capturing the three Huayi commissions.
20 Nov Emergency Stairs produced Southernmost- Crossing Boundaries, a video project capturing the first three instalments of its intercultural festival, the Southernmost Project.
17 Nov Emergency Stairs updated its logo designed by Feral.
13 Nov Liu Xiaoyi was invited to the 2020 FACP Kaohsiung Online Conference Weiwuying International Symposium to share his exploration and future plan of working with Artificial Intelligence.
6 Jul The launch of Trialogue – a three artists online dialogue series started during the COVID19 pandemic, initiated by Liu Xiaoyi and brought together River Lin (Paris/Taipei) and Wang Chong (Beijing).
3 May Emergency Academy batch one (2020-2022) started.
31 Mar Emergency Stairs left the National Arts Council Seed Grant Scheme.
25 Mar Emergency Stairs moved out from STAIRCASE to Xiaoyi’s residence after the three year lease ended.
1 Mar Liu Xiaoyi was invited to be part of the international curating board for Re-Connect Online Performance Festival, which uses digital media technologies to reconnect artists and audiences during the social distancing era. The first edition of the festival took place between March 25-April 17, featuring 45 live performances and 20 lecture or panel discussions.
2019
5-10 Nov Emergency Stairs, together with Zuni Icosahedron (Hong Kong) presented the third Southernmost Project (Journey to a Dream) in Centre 42.
12 Jun- 25 Nov Emergency Stairs consolidated its international exchange programme, One Table Many Chairs Project, supported by the NAC Capability Development Partnership.
8 July Emergency Shelter assembled- year three.
22 Apr- 8 Jun Emergency Shelter opened the creative processes behind OFFSTAGE 2.0 to audiences in STAIRCASE.
19- 23 Feb Esplanade commissioned Emergency Stairs’ production, Four Four Eight in Huayi- Chinese Festival of Arts 2019.
2018
29 Dec Liu Xiaoyi submitted his proposal for the Young Artist Award Grant for an experimental art project that traverses both the arts and technology, No More Theatre series.
2-11 Nov Emergency Stairs presented the second Southernmost Project (Journey to Nowhere) in Centre 42.
29 Aug- 29 Oct Emergency Stairs embarked on its second international exchange programme, One Table Two Chairs International.
16 July Emergency Shelter assembled- year two.
30 May- 3 June Emergency Shelter’s first production, OFFSTAGE presented in STAIRCASE.
1 May Emergency Stairs moved into its first space, STAIRCASE located at Soon Wing Industrial Building, #06-14.
1-4 Mar Esplanade commissioned Emergency Stairs’ production, Einstein in the Carpark in Huayi- Chinese Festival of Arts 2018.
2017
12-24 Dec Emergency Stairs presented the inaugural Southernmost Project in the Arts House.
9 Sep-9 Dec Emergency Stairs embarked on its first international exchange programme, One Table Two Chairs International.
1 July Emergency Shelter assembled- year one.
20 June Emergency Stairs Ltd incorporated as a company limited by guarantee.
1 April Emergency Stairs received the National Arts Council Seed Grant from 1 April 2017 to 31 March 2020.
10-12 Feb Esplanade commissioned Emergency Stairs’ first production, Offending the Audience in Huayi- Chinese Festival of Arts 2017.
1 Feb First logo design finalised; designed by Huang Suhuai.
2016
29 Dec Emergency Stairs applied to National Arts Council’s Seed Grant Scheme.
Nov-Dec After several meetings, the four founding members made the decision to establish Emergency Stairs.
4 Oct Liu Xiaoyi received the Young Artist Award, Singapore’s highest award for young arts practitioners.
