In 2011, the New Museum presented “We Remember Stories, Not Facts,” a series of contextualizing and investigative programs conceived in collaboration with Wu Tsang as part of the artist’s residency at the Museum. Each program was designed to illuminate and expand upon various aspects of Tsang’s new film and performance project Full Body Quotation (FBQ).

Full Body Quotation sampled audio clips and quotations from the unknown (and known) cannon of transgender cinema—channeling them into live performance. In the tradition of drag realness, Tsang maintained a studied and irreverent relationship to the social “realities” that produced the original films. By appropriating, re-embodying, and remixing these voices, Full Body Quotation explored self-representation and context as a performance in and of itself. Conceived as a follow-up to the performance PIG (Politically Involved Girls), which was presented last year at X-Initative in collaboration with Zackary Drucker and Marriana Marroquin, Full Body Quotation was Tsang’s directorial debut.

“We Remember Stories, Not Facts” was presented as part of the New Museum’s RE:NEW RE:PLAY performance residency series and the Museum as Hub curatorial platform. The residency programs included a discussion revisiting the context and impact of Paris is Burning that considered the role that editing plays in documentary storytelling and the politics of representation; The Table, a five-hour, day-into-night performance by DJ/producers Kingdom (Ezra Rubin), Nguzunguzu (Asma Maroof and Daniel Pineda), and Total Freedom (Ashland Mines) in collaboration with Tsang; as well as a screening and discussion on simulated day-in-the-life “docufantasy” Hail the New Puritan.

Tsang continued to develop Full Body Quotation at the New Museum throughout the Summer – Winter 2011 seasons, culminating with a live performance as part of Performa 11. This performance became the foundation of the resulting 16mm film loop For How We Perceived a Life (Take 3), filmed in the 235 studio space and subsequently presented in the New Museum’s 2012 Triennial “The Ungovernables.”

“We Remember Stories, Not Facts” was presented as part of the New Museum’s RE:NEW RE:PLAY performance residency series and the Museum as Hub curatorial platform.