2015–present↗
P4 Theater
Spaces, participants, events and documentation change one another through sustained work.
Collaborative practice2021 / Theatre event, 3P creative observation and exhibition proposal
Kill the Rose: 3P—Watching, Performing, Recording
Cameras and writers enter rehearsal, making documentation a form of participation that can affect the event.
- He Fa’s role
- 3P group creator; author of the 3P recruitment text
- Principal production credits
- Initiator/director Liu Ziluo; producer Zheng Anqi; dramaturg Sun Xiaoxing; writer Liu Ke
- Published 3P roster
- Sun Xiaoxing, He Fa, Li Wenqi, Pian Ziwei and Zhang Haolin
Complete chapter contents
A parallel creative process
The eighth P4U project, Kill the Rose, was introduced as a “wild interactive musical”, with a story involving a leaked photograph and online violence. Alongside the production, He Fa authored a call for 3P creators to enter rehearsals, conversations, interviews and documentation. The public introduction of 24 May lists him in the 3P group and separately credits the production’s director, writer and team.
The 3P call welcomed photography, writing, sound, moving image and other media. It required at least three releases during the monthly cycle and proposed an exhibition in the non-stage areas opening on the day of the performance. Observers were considered part of the environment, capable of affecting the event. Documentation therefore had its own rhythm and public form, speaking while rehearsal was still underway and bringing participants’ judgements into the work.
He Fa’s source text · 2021
“A sincere observer continually includes themselves within the system.” Watching, performing and recording become a way of working together. The exhibition and release frequency were proposed rules; this page distinguishes that rule text from the published roster of creators.
Moving image & related documents
Archive note
Compiled from the listed P4 documents, with later recollections dated separately. Editorial description and source excerpts are distinguished. English translations were prepared for this archive.
Continue exploring
2021↗
A Centrist’s Self-Rescue Guide After the Failure of Love
Audience choices enter a debate about love; He Fa responds through a signed text.
Collaborative practice
2023↗
Personal Chronicle / PHA
Begin with a personal account, propose a project publicly, and continue the archive through action.
Collaborative practiceCLOSE READING / 2026 CURATORIAL INTERPRETATION
Kill the Rose: 3P—Watching, Performing, Recording
What happens to an event when its record is published before it ends?
3P does not wait until the play is finished to certify that it happened. Observers enter rehearsal, interviews and conversations and publish during the same production cycle. A remark can already have been read, judged and brought back into the room before opening night. Documentation is not merely the event’s later shadow: it becomes a condition of its continuation. Photography, writing and performance cross one another through an actual rhythm of publication.
Acknowledging the observer’s presence does not erase differences between observer and observed. Editing power, publication timing and the consequences of circulation still require particular decisions. The original rules leave ownership for members to negotiate, showing that even the identity of a work’s author is produced through collaboration. A presentation should unfold stage production and documentation in parallel, with their separate makers and dates, so viewers can see one event generating different works that affect one another.
The limits of this reading
Three publications and a simultaneous exhibition opening were requirements; each member’s actual output needs its own publication evidence.
Sources for this reading
Based on He Fa’s signed 3P open call of 13 May 2021 and the production / 3P roster of 24 May.
Continue in writing
Follow works back to signed texts, with writing at the time, later reflection and participant accounts identified separately.
3P Open Call: Witnessing and Recording the Eighth P4U Project, Kill the Rose
Reading connectionThe 2021 3P call invites observers into the making of Kill the Rose. It proposes following the process, publishing during the production period and exhibiting alongside the performance, while leaving ownership for members to discuss. Looking, performing and recording alternate within these rules as observers prepare to make their judgments public.
Work record
Kill the Rose: 3P—Watching, Performing, Recording, 2021. Theatre event, 3P creative observation and exhibition proposal. He Fa’s role: 3P group creator; author of the 3P recruitment text.
- Work / series
- Kill the Rose: 3P—Watching, Performing, Recording
- Date
- 2021
- Medium
- Theatre event, 3P creative observation and exhibition proposal
- He Fa’s role
- 3P group creator; author of the 3P recruitment text
- Catalogue section
- Collaborative practice
Cite this record: Kill the Rose: 3P—Watching, Performing, Recording · 2021 · 3P group creator; author of the 3P recruitment text · https://hefa.p4theater.cn/en/work/kill-the-rose-3p
TAKE A PATH ACROSS
Other paths from this work.
Keeping and losing
Publication becomes part of the work
Kill the Rose: 3P—Watching, Performing, Recordingchinesesamericandream / Instagram Thesis
The Instagram thesis statement treats an account as the thesis; 3P makes publication during production a rule. Both include public entry points in the work, but the account’s historical posts have not been fully read, so their sequence cannot be supplied.
Continue from this work ↗Read the source materials
- Artist’s statementA thesis located in an account ↗
The original 2018 Fa He.docx designates an Instagram account as the thesis; historical posts have not been fully read and no posting sequence is supplied.
- Period documentA parallel creative process ↗
He Fa’s signed 3P call requires at least three publications within one month, retained separately from the play’s director, writer and 3P participant lists.
- Artist’s statementA thesis located in an account ↗
Keeping and losing
Sometimes recording, sometimes not
Kill the Rose: 3P—Watching, Performing, RecordingP4 Screenings: Reflections Between Us
P4 Screenings’ September rules keep discussion unrecorded; 3P requires at least three publications in a month. An encounter may need preservation or privacy. Together these arrangements make recording a responsibility to choose, rather than an automatic good.
Continue from this work ↗Read the source materials
- Period documentFrom screening to self-screening ↗
The September 2020 rules specify four rotating film themes, participants’ own videos and the decision not to record discussions.
- Period documentA parallel creative process ↗
He Fa’s signed 3P call requires at least three publications within one month, retained separately from the play’s director, writer and 3P participant lists.
- Period documentFrom screening to self-screening ↗
2026-10-04 / ARCHIVAL ADDITION
Source materials, process and versions
Character biographies, an outline and the script offer different stages of writing. Fictional actions are retained as script material rather than rewritten as factual events.
FROM HERE, ELSEWHERE
Passages between works
- When another person enters
Observers join work in progress and affect it through concurrent publication.