The Works：CHAT’s “The Spinning East Asia Series II” exhibition & in the studio: CCDC's Astor Piazzo

The Mills’ non-profit cultural arm, the Centre for Heritage, Arts and Textile, or CHAT, focuses on exhibitions and co-learning programmes related to woven textiles. Last year, they organised “Spinning East Asia”, inviting more than 40 artists, designers, and researchers from the region to examine the socio-cultural complexity of textile culture. The first part of the project was exhibited last year, and the second part is currently on show until early August.

Astor Piazzolla created his only tango opera, “Maria de Buenos Aries” in 1967 with a libretto by poet and lyricist Horacio Ferrer. A pioneering work in the new style of tango, Nuevo Tango, the two-part opera brings together scholarly writing, popular melodies, jazz, tango, and classical music. It should be performed by at least three vocalists, narrators, orchestration, and - often - dancers. This month the City Contemporary Dance Company is presenting the opera: the story of the birth and death of Maria, a prostitute born on a day “when God was drunk”, under Helen Lai’s direction and choreography. Some of those involved in the production are here to tell us more.