DÉRACINÉ RHIZOME: RETHINKING ROOTS ACROSS CONTINENTS

2025
EDITION

New AECFest Supported Residency: Déraciné Rhizome

The AECFest residency programme nurtures cross-cultural collaboration and knowledge exchange by providing artists with time, space and resources to develop new artistic projects. Closing off the 2025 cycle, Déraciné Rhizome brings together 8 artists from Asia and Europe for a virtual collaboration centred on the topic of “human mobility” and “gravity” in European cities.  

Conceptualised by Orangcosong, an artist collective led by Minori Sumiyoshiyama and Chikara Fujiwara from Japan, the project provides a platform for artists to share perspectives and co-create across borders. From November to December of 2025, 8 participating artists from China, Japan, Indonesia, Thailand and Viet Nam, based in countries across Europe such as Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Switzerland, will connect virtually to investigate the flows, displacements, and connections that shape human movement across cultures and cities. Inspired by circular ecosystems and the experience of being uprooted from one’s ‘natural’ environment, Déraciné Rhizome reimagines the possibilities of cross-continental and cross-cultural collaborations, highlighting how artists can remain interconnected even while physically apart. 

The results of Déraciné Rhizome, captured through creative works and visual documentation, will be shared in 2026, highlighting new perspectives on movement, displacement, and the ties that bind us across continents.

Minori Sumiyoshiyama (orangcosong) works as a transdisciplinary artist. Since 2017, she has presented and initiated several international projects, including “Hitsudankai – From now/here, Silence”, in cities across Asia, Africa, and Europe. and “2x2 WindowS”, an online international project with multimedia composer Tam Thi Pham. In recent years, her practice has extended across both analog and digital realms. © Takahashi Kenji, Photo courtesy of Tokyo Arts and Space
Minori Sumiyoshiyama (orangcosong) works as a transdisciplinary artist. Since 2017, she has presented and initiated several international projects, including “Hitsudankai – From now/here, Silence”, in cities across Asia, Africa, and Europe. and “2x2 WindowS”, an online international project with multimedia composer Tam Thi Pham. In recent years, her practice has extended across both analog and digital realms. © Takahashi Kenji, Photo courtesy of Tokyo Arts and Space
Chikara Fujiwara (orangcosong) is an artist based in Yokohama, Japan. Since 2014, he has initiated and developed international projects, such as “Engeki Quest”, a walk-based tour project that has been realized in numerous cities around the world, and “IsLand Bar” with multinational artists at ADAM artist lab in Taipei. He was a Saison Fellow of The Saison Foundation (2017–20) and a Cultural Envoy of the Agency for Cultural Affairs of Japan (2017).
Chikara Fujiwara (orangcosong) is an artist based in Yokohama, Japan. Since 2014, he has initiated and developed international projects, such as “Engeki Quest”, a walk-based tour project that has been realized in numerous cities around the world, and “IsLand Bar” with multinational artists at ADAM artist lab in Taipei. He was a Saison Fellow of The Saison Foundation (2017–20) and a Cultural Envoy of the Agency for Cultural Affairs of Japan (2017).
Born in Salatiga, Java, Indonesia, Eddie Hara currently lives and works in Basel, Switzerland. Living on and off in Europe and in Indonesia, Eddie Hara describes himself as a kind of a marginal artist who is unafraid to give his opinions on political problems, gender and racial issues, environmental problems, and the prevalent poverty and the resulting violence in our society. Despite this serious aspect in his art, his canvases which are populated by mutant women and strange animals display a solid dose of irony and humour.
Born in Salatiga, Java, Indonesia, Eddie Hara currently lives and works in Basel, Switzerland. Living on and off in Europe and in Indonesia, Eddie Hara describes himself as a kind of a marginal artist who is unafraid to give his opinions on political problems, gender and racial issues, environmental problems, and the prevalent poverty and the resulting violence in our society. Despite this serious aspect in his art, his canvases which are populated by mutant women and strange animals display a solid dose of irony and humour.
Eva Lou is an artist, a dramaturg and a creative facilitator, currently based in Amsterdam and Shanghai. She works through performance-making, workshops, social practices and engages with curatorial models. Her works often arise from the mundane of everyday life and she uses art as process and searches for relationality and ways of being together. Co-creation and collaboration is vital to her artistic beliefs. Eva is a member of _ao_ao_ing ensemble, a performance collective based in Shanghai and beyond.
Eva Lou is an artist, a dramaturg and a creative facilitator, currently based in Amsterdam and Shanghai. She works through performance-making, workshops, social practices and engages with curatorial models. Her works often arise from the mundane of everyday life and she uses art as process and searches for relationality and ways of being together. Co-creation and collaboration is vital to her artistic beliefs. Eva is a member of _ao_ao_ing ensemble, a performance collective based in Shanghai and beyond.
Pepe Dayaw is a polymathic artist, designer and producer working in the fields of performance, textile & costumes and transmedia publishing. Since moving to Europe in 2010, Dayaw has been creating situations and materialities of taste, movement and tactility that depart from a synthesis of a Filipino migrant fiction. He draws aesthetic and philosophic inspiration from their migrant autoethnography, renewing and remixing the contemporary while paying homage to their tropical island heritage. © Jona Castaneda
Pepe Dayaw is a polymathic artist, designer and producer working in the fields of performance, textile & costumes and transmedia publishing. Since moving to Europe in 2010, Dayaw has been creating situations and materialities of taste, movement and tactility that depart from a synthesis of a Filipino migrant fiction. He draws aesthetic and philosophic inspiration from their migrant autoethnography, renewing and remixing the contemporary while paying homage to their tropical island heritage. © Jona Castaneda
Tam Thi Pham is a Vietnamese multimedia composer, improviser, and performer currently based in Hamburg, Germany. She works with improvisation and contact dance while integrating technology into live and networked performances, creating dynamic experiences where music, movement, and technology intersect. Alongside her creative work, Tam organizes contemporary music and art events in Hanoi and Hamburg. Since 2025, she has been chairwoman of Hörbar e.V., presenting experimental music concerts with her team in Hamburg.
Tam Thi Pham is a Vietnamese multimedia composer, improviser, and performer currently based in Hamburg, Germany. She works with improvisation and contact dance while integrating technology into live and networked performances, creating dynamic experiences where music, movement, and technology intersect. Alongside her creative work, Tam organizes contemporary music and art events in Hanoi and Hamburg. Since 2025, she has been chairwoman of Hörbar e.V., presenting experimental music concerts with her team in Hamburg.
Scarlet Yu Mei is a Hong Kong–born Thai-Chinese artist whose practice moves through the intersections of choreography, performance, and relational ecologies. Her works, presented internationally from China to Mexico and more, create choreographic situations that reveal how belonging, estrangement, and diasporic inheritance are negotiated through everyday gestures and embodied attention.
Scarlet Yu Mei is a Hong Kong–born Thai-Chinese artist whose practice moves through the intersections of choreography, performance, and relational ecologies. Her works, presented internationally from China to Mexico and more, create choreographic situations that reveal how belonging, estrangement, and diasporic inheritance are negotiated through everyday gestures and embodied attention.
Serene Hui is an artist currently based in the Netherlands and Hong Kong. Her practice is research-focused and multi-faceted, engaging primarily with installation, audio and live works, printmaking and text. Serene's work is involved in a discursive, artistic and political exploration of her own context, using the geographical distance from personal lived experiences to investigate the wider socio-political impact of how meaning is made and who has access to making it.
Serene Hui is an artist currently based in the Netherlands and Hong Kong. Her practice is research-focused and multi-faceted, engaging primarily with installation, audio and live works, printmaking and text. Serene's work is involved in a discursive, artistic and political exploration of her own context, using the geographical distance from personal lived experiences to investigate the wider socio-political impact of how meaning is made and who has access to making it.
Born in Tokyo, Rino Daidoji is an actor/performer and artist based in Italy and Japan. She is a co-founding member of Tokyo-based experimental theater company FAIFAI, and has appeared in a diverse range of domestic and international productions with the company. She began venturing into performing solo since 2014, and in 2015, moved to Cesena in northern Italy where she is currently based.
Born in Tokyo, Rino Daidoji is an actor/performer and artist based in Italy and Japan. She is a co-founding member of Tokyo-based experimental theater company FAIFAI, and has appeared in a diverse range of domestic and international productions with the company. She began venturing into performing solo since 2014, and in 2015, moved to Cesena in northern Italy where she is currently based.