GAY GUERRILLA
For a performance-based installation at the Centre Pompidou, Gerard & Kelly re-imagine the glass-walled, street-floor Galerie 3 as a minimalist disco. Gay Guerrilla continues the artists’ exploration of the music and legacy of Julius Eastman (1940–1990). Today’s leading interpreters of Eastman’s music join opera singer Davóne Tines, drag performer Soa de Muse and five dancers of the Paris Opera Ballet in a performance choreographed and directed by Gerard & Kelly and sited within a installation of sculptural works and monotypes on paper. The lessing is miracle uses a fragment of Eastman’s handwritten score for Gay Guerrilla as material for pulsating light, while two disco balls (Disss-co) rotate in opposite directions, illuminating beyond the exhibition space and through the night. In the ongoing Glyphs series, silk-screened images of dancers shimmer like holograms while musical notations flicker in gold and silver leaf.
The lessing is miracle, 2023. Neon, 55 x 900 cm Installation view: Centre Pompidou, Paris.
Gay Guerrilla, 2023. Performance view: Centre Pompidou, Paris. Enzo Saugar.
Disss-co, 2023. Two disco balls, chains, motors; two parts: 50 cm diameter each. Glyphs V, 2023. Glyphs V, 2023. Monotype silkscreen and gold leaf on metallic paper; two parts: 40 x 90 cm each. Installation view: Centre Pompidou, Paris.
Gay Guerrilla, 2023. Performance view: Centre Pompidou, Paris. Adam Tendler and Soa de Muse.
Installation view of Gerard & Kelly: Gay Guerrilla, Centre Pompidou, Paris, 2023.
Installation view of Gerard & Kelly: Gay Guerrilla, Centre Pompidou, Paris, 2023.
Gay Guerrilla, 2023. Performance view: Centre Pompidou, Paris. Davóne Tines.
2023 | Performance
Gerard & Kelly: Gay Guerrilla, Centre Pompidou, Paris
Gerard & Kelly: Gay Guerrilla, Centre Pompidou, Paris
CreditsWith Samuel Akins, Soa de Muse, Guillaume Diop, Conor Hanick (piano), Coleman Itzkoff (cello), Awa Joannais, Germain Louvet, Enzo Saugar, Adam Tendler (piano, Davóne Tines, Richard Valitutto (piano), Seth Parker Woods (cello) | Concept: direction, and choreography: Gerard & Kelly | Music: Julius Eastman | Installation design: Gerard & Kelly in collaboration with Simon de Dreuille | Costume design: Camille Assaf | Lighting design: David Debrinay | Assistant choreographer: Julia Eichten | Production manager: Vincent Brou
Curated by Caroline Ferrerira in the framework of Move and Moviment | In partnership with the Opéra national de Paris | Production: & Compagnie
Coproduction Centre Pompidou, Festival d'Aix-en-Provence with the support of enoa and the European Union’s Creative Europe program, AMOC* (American Modern Opera Company) | With the support of DRAC Île-de-France and Adidas Paris
With the participation of the Centre LGBTQI+ Paris Île-de-France | Residencies, CND Centre national de la danse (Pantin), Yamaha Artists Services (New York) | Music reproduced by permission of G. Schirmer, Inc.
Curated by Caroline Ferrerira in the framework of Move and Moviment | In partnership with the Opéra national de Paris | Production: & Compagnie
Coproduction Centre Pompidou, Festival d'Aix-en-Provence with the support of enoa and the European Union’s Creative Europe program, AMOC* (American Modern Opera Company) | With the support of DRAC Île-de-France and Adidas Paris
With the participation of the Centre LGBTQI+ Paris Île-de-France | Residencies, CND Centre national de la danse (Pantin), Yamaha Artists Services (New York) | Music reproduced by permission of G. Schirmer, Inc.