Nordic Countries (Sweden, Finland, Norway)

The Altersea Opera is an audio-visual installation, a drama where an epic quest at sea suggests the existential implications of displacement and belonging. The project is conceived and conceptualised by artist Lap-See Lam (Sweden) and realised in collaboration with experimental composer Tze Yeung Ho (Norway) and textile artist Kholod Hawash (Finland). At the centre of the story, we find the Cantonese mythological figure Lo Ting – half fish, half man – and his longing to return to his former life in Fragrant Harbour.
Working with contemporary technology and traditional references and techniques, Lap-See Lam’s generative practice at once claims and complicates the notion of cultural heritage. The score, composed by Tze Yeung Ho, merges Baroque ornamentation and unexpected instruments in melancholic melodies, interspersed with lullabies and poetry that draw on the multilingual background of the artists. Kholod Hawash’s textile works form a sculptural installation in the pavilion.
In the spirit of the Red Boat Troupes, the travelling company that popularised Cantonese Opera in the 19th century, The Altersea Opera veers between the real and the imaginary while telling a story of generational loss and diasporic experience, and negotiating a desire to stay with the need to move on.