Bittersweet

Social practice · Making kites, sharing dreams

Bittersweet is a participatory project in which making and flying a kite becomes a way to give personal dreams a shared, visible form. Elvis Chen invites members of the public to make kites together, write their dreams into the work, and carry these contributions into the open sky.

MAKING TOGETHER
The project begins on the ground, through conversation and the shared work of making. Participants contribute to the kite and its tails, adding words, wishes and reflections. The finished object carries traces of the people who made it: individual stories brought together in one work.

DREAMS AND TAILS
The written dreams are part of the kite itself. Its trailing tails extend the work through space, making the wind visible through their movement. Together, kite and tails connect the intimate act of writing a wish with the public experience of seeing it take flight.

A SHARED SKY
Flying becomes a collective encounter. Holding a line, helping a kite rise, and watching it move creates a moment of attention between people. The work holds aspiration alongside uncertainty: a dream can be given a form and sent upward, while its movement remains open to the wind.