Revolution is a Dinner Party

Kexin Hao’s puppet performance stages a dialogue in the afterlife between a sparrow and a rat; the two are victims of historical pest control campaigns. As they debate class struggle, they reveal how humans and pests are entangled in political sanitation efforts. A silverfish leads them to a dinner, where a revolution unfolds…

“Revolution is not a dinner party,” as Mao Zedong put it; this puppet performance reinterprets the statement as an invitation to reflect on food, pests and interspecies intimacy. We witness a dialogue in the afterlife between a sparrow and a rat. Drawing on the communist Smash Sparrows campaign and the French Great Hanoi Rat Massacre, the two debate class conflict and reveal how humans and pests are entangled in political violence and colonial sanitation efforts. A silverfish interrupts them, showing that all three share a single body: the sparrow as the mouth and the rat as the intestines. It leads them to a dinner party, where a revolution unfolds…

Accessibility info

The access route from the bicycle parking is an 85-meter grass/forest path.