Scaffolding 3
Ivan Cheng – Nowadays
Ivan Cheng, Nowadays. Julidans x Stedelijk Museum, 2026. © Maarten Nauw
Scaffolding #3
Ivan Cheng
Nowadays
27.11. Doors 6.30 pm, Start 7 pm
Ivan Cheng’s Nowadays draws on two widely circulated stories that both became successful Broadway musicals. Chicago, adapted from Maurine Dallas Watkins’s play, follows two felons in 1920s Jazz Age America who reshape their stories to win celebrity. Spring Awakening, adapted from Frank Wedekind’s 1891 play, portrays German teenagers who, facing puberty and sexual curiosity, meet psychological turmoil and adult intolerance. Cheng sees both as driven by misunderstanding and obscured facts: the gap between what happened and how it is told. Interested in exposing theatrical devices and sharpening the audience’s awareness of the space between material and interpretation, he fractures and reassembles these sources into a more unstable framework for considering image production, identity, and how a person becomes spectacle.
With SCAFFOLDING, the Künstler:innenhaus Bremen presents a new exhibition series for the institution, focused on performance, which takes place in the empty gallery space between deinstallation and installation.
Please note: Due to venue constraints, seating and standing capacity is limited. We recommend coming early!
Free admission!
