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The elephant in the room

2025

China

Embodying “the elephant in the room,” charting the journey from collective silence to a solitary, costly awakening.

The elephant in the room
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CREDITS

Created by

​—

Jiayue Yu

Produced by WHITEMIST Studio

An experimental dance film inspired by sociologist Eviatar Zerubavel’s book The Elephant in the Room, confronting issues that are “obvious yet collectively avoided.” Through an interdisciplinary fusion of contemporary dance, theater, performance, and installation art, the film transforms abstract sociological concepts into embodied artistic experience. The work features 27 amateur dancers and 20 professional dancers, with amateurs accounting for 57.45%—a contemporary art practice centered on diverse bodies.

Narrative Overview
The film explores the enduring tension between the collective and the individual.
At the collective level: silence, endurance, confusion, self-deception, and avoidance
At the individual level: conformity, obsession, neglect, and psychological hypnosis
At the moment of awakening: the inevitability of cost and isolation
All ultimately point toward an existential destination—illusion—
and finally, an exit: “Leave the room. Return to the open wilderness.”

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