Saturday / February 28, 2026 at 4:30 pm Artist Na Mira reflects on her work and artistic research through the lens of the theater lobby—a space that traditionally marks the passage from the everyday into the fictive, and the site of Mira’s AUTOASPHYXIATION on view during the staging grounds festival. All are welcome. Free, with RSVP. Talk Na Mira

Saturday / February 28, 2026 at 3:15 pm Workshop participants collaborate with artist Jewyo Rhii to record reflections, memories, and stories that reveal new ways of experiencing the city. Their collective audio guide will remain accessible after the event. Limited to 20 participants. Free, with advanced registration. Workshop Jewyo Rhii

Saturday / February 28, 2026 at 2:15 pm A screening of WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE PRIMITIVE (2023) by Li Yi-Fan offers both parody and serious reflection. Created using a video game engine, the work is a meditation on the pleasures and perils of building a personal persona within screenspace. All are welcome. Free, with RSVP. Film/Video Li Yi-Fan

February 24-28, 2026 Korakrit Arunanondchai’s film UNITY FOR NOSTALGIA (2025) is screened as a haunting video installation presented on the theater stage amid traces of Arunanondchai’s commissioned performance. Elements of myth, choreographic performance, and ritual evoke ancestral presence with atmospheric intensity. Installation Korakrit Arunanondchai

February 20-28, 2026 In staging grounds, Samson Young’s LIQUID BORDERS (2012-14) fills the theater lobby with the sounds of a closed frontier zone. The four-part composition traces both natural and manmade barriers, re-staging these as a textured symphony that flows from the industrial clang of metal to gentle shifts of water and wind. Installation Samson Young

Friday / February 20, 2026 at 8:00 pm An EMPAC commission that blends performance, video, and sound, Korakrit Arunanondchai’s THE GHOST WILL TAKE US BY THE HAND takes cues from Asian horror films, using atmosphere—sonic, choreographic, visual, spiritual—as a primary medium. This ticketed performance disorients spectatorship and tests the boundaries between film and live action. Performance Korakrit Arunanondchai

February 20-28, 2026 Jewyo Rhii’s WING THEATER, commissioned by EMPAC, oscillates between installation and activated performance space, with Rhii offering two live activations daily throughout the festival. At once a self-contained theater, a sculptural archive, and a staging ground for storytelling, the piece blurs the boundary between private process and collective encounter. Performance Jewyo Rhii

February 20-28, 2026 Na Mira’s AUTOASPHYXIATION (2025) is on view in EMPAC’s theater lobby during the staging grounds Arts Festival. The artwork is played on a loop with a total run-time of 15 minutes and 19 seconds. Installation Na Mira

February 20-28, 2026 staging grounds Arts Festival 2026 is a platform of performances, open installations, and public programs. New commissions by Korakrit Arunanondchai and Jewyo Rhii, with additional artworks by Na Mira, Samson Young, and Li Yi-Fan explore how art, cultural memory, and experience are shaped by structures that re-animate events across time. Festival Korakrit Arunanondchai, Li Yi-Fan, Na Mira, Jewyo Rhii, and Samson Young

Thursday / December 18, 2025 at 2:00 pm How do we build a world from the detritus of a faltering society? How are we responsive to the environment, people, and objects around us? What are the ways that we can hold a more sacred relationship to one another?