Free Touch is an ongoing artistic practice initiated by artist Chou Kuan Jou, exploring the boundaries between the body and space. Set in public spaces such as plazas, stadiums, parks, or markets, the project invites strangers to engage in one-on-one, consensual touch to ask: What is public touch? Since 2024, Free Touch has traveled through four countries and 16 locations, engaging 60 participants. Through touch among artist, participant, bystander, and site, Free Touch opens a way, via the sensory perception of skin, to shape or dissolve boundaries. It manifests a presence that exceeds the here and now, opening a blurred space within the public sphere, one that holds both public gaze and private exploration. The flesh, as a convergence of time and space, mirrors the public realm itself. In asking what public touch means, the work also asks: How do I exist in relation to it? Free Touch is presented in alignment with Free Touch: Staging Presence. Concept & Performance: Chou Kuan Jou
Audience Role
Through touch among artist, participant, bystander, and site, Free Touch opens a way, via the sensory perception of skin, to shape or dissolve boundaries.
Ages: All ages
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13
Events
2
Years on EI
About SummerWorks
SummerWorks is a leader, collaborator, and community builder at the forefront of contemporary performance – asking crucial questions; nurturing artistic innovation; and presenting new works that reflect the complexity and diversity of our society. Anchored by our annual SummerWorks Performance Festival in August, SummerWorks offers a year-round program of creation, presentation, and learning opportunities for artists and audiences.