Sorour Darabi
Echelle Humaine - Farci.e
© © Mehrdad Motejalli ©
© © Mehrdad Motejalli ©
Bodies are the vectors of this new edition of Échelle Humaine. Whether they be choreographed, directed, or imaginary, they occupy all the spaces of Lafayette Anticipations and invite us to observe what is beneath the surface of the world: our infatuations and our refusals, our hesitations and our affirmations, and our tenacity.
What can a discourse on identity and gender mean if it is formulated in a language that assigns a gender to the words themselves? This is the silent question posed in this solo by the Iranian artist Sorour Darabi.
In Farsi, his mother tongue, the language in which he.she began to think and name things, there is no genre, neither for objects nor for ideas.
The word gender is "جسن†ی†ت" (jenssiat), which means matter. When it is applied to objects, it designates their materiality: the genre of the word table is wood, metal, or melamine. By analogy, for Sorour, his kind is skin, muscles, bones, vessels. But then, what is the gender of the word gender itself? What is its material? How can one think in a language that gives genre to ideas?
In French, an object that we can't name becomes "a thing". Therefore, is a body that we can't generate a thing a thing? But une chose, in French, is feminine, isn't it? Are all things feminine? The word feminine is masculine, however.
––––––
Running time: 40 minutes
In the same place
Rabih Mroué Make Me Stop Smoking
Rabih Mroué's objective with his “non-academic conferences” is to subvert, via the perspective of performance, the principle of the conference. He does so by imitating the mechanisms at work within the conference format. He does not set out to make fun of the principle of the conference itself, but rather to exploit the power of the exercise as a form of public address. This is achieved by operating a shift of a voluntarily ambiguous nature, passing from presentation to representation and from reality to the imagination. The illusion it sets up is a disturbing one: the tone is neutral, the expertise seems well proven, and the documents supporting the speech suggest authenticity. This, of course, is precisely the aim of the whole mischievous, moving and intellectually stimulating operation.
Dalila Belaza Figures (version performative)
In Figures, Dalila Belaza looks into the possibility of a universal rite, by inventing an imaginary traditional dance "without origin or territory" that links the present to eternity. This force takes possession of the body, echoing a heritage that each of us carries with us, often unconsciously.
Rabih Mroué The Inhabitants of Images
Rabih Mroué's objective with his “non-academic conferences” is to subvert, via the perspective of performance, the principle of the conference. He does so by imitating the mechanisms at work within the conference format. He does not set out to make fun of the principle of the conference itself, but rather to exploit the power of the exercise as a form of public address. This is achieved by operating a shift of a voluntarily ambiguous nature, passing from presentation to representation and from reality to the imagination. The illusion it sets up is a disturbing one: the tone is neutral, the expertise seems well proven, and the documents supporting the speech suggest authenticity. This, of course, is precisely the aim of the whole mischievous, moving and intellectually stimulating operation.
Rabih Mroué Sand in the Eyes
Rabih Mroué's objective with his “non-academic conferences” is to subvert, via the perspective of performance, the principle of the conference. He does so by imitating the mechanisms at work within the conference format. He does not set out to make fun of the principle of the conference itself, but rather to exploit the power of the exercise as a form of public address. This is achieved by operating a shift of a voluntarily ambiguous nature, passing from presentation to representation and from reality to the imagination. The illusion it sets up is a disturbing one: the tone is neutral, the expertise seems well proven, and the documents supporting the speech suggest authenticity. This, of course, is precisely the aim of the whole mischievous, moving and intellectually stimulating operation.