Maungauika Trilogy, a silent video installation by choreographer Moana Nepia, offers an interpretation of the Māori concept of te kore. Te kore literally means ‘the nothingness’. However, this ‘nothingness’ is charged with potential. It can be understood as an incubation space, a nurturing void that enables life to exist where previously there was nothing. Nepia transforms the gallery into a crypt-like space, representing the transition space between life and death. His shadowy figures move slowly, straddling the threshold between night and day. Are they new beings, emerging from the void into the world of light (te ao mārama)? Or, are they tired souls returning back, beyond the veil of the night, to be embraced by the darkness once more?
