10’43” 2015

10’43” (The 10’43” Before Meeting With Zhao Ziming For The First Time)

It was in the morning on April 5th, 2015, at 9 sometime. I’d ridden the night train from Guangzhou arriving at Xiamen. My friend, Zhao Ziming was supposed to meet me at the train station. We hadn’t scheduled a time but knowing that he’d just waken up and needed a while. Never before had I met Zhao Ziming in person. We’d only talked online once through 3 emails. I remember a poem he wrote. It is titled “The Temple of Enlightenment”, which Zhang Wenxin had it send to me. I had no idea what Zhao Ziming looked like, nor did I know when he would get there. I just sit on the low stool that I found in front of a KFC. It had been nearly 10 years that I hadn’t been at the same spot. It was in front of the KFC on the ground floor on the North Square of Xiamen Train Station on April 5th, 2015 where and when I was waiting for my friend Zhao Ziming. I had no idea when he would show up, nor did I know when I turned on the sound recorder. The construction machines on the square were generating loops of two pitches and their partials; the soundscape in the mall was layered with rhythmical noises. Not until a voice called my name did I remove the earphones and press pause.

Once I subconsciously pressed the record button, “I am waiting to meet a person I’ve never met” became a fabricated script, namely “The 10’43” Before Meeting Zhao Ziming For the First Time”. The performance started as a result of the act of recording. The length of the performance was unknown until I met this person. The 10’43”-long recording documents the sound field where and when I was sitting and listening to, which also proves the presence of me recording/performing.

— 2015.4.5