Day 3 - The Artists Are Present #1

Black identity, shamanism, groove, aggression

Alexandre Fandard – Comme un Symbole

In turn barbaric, riffraff, potential terrorist and eternal stranger, the “youth from the suburbs” is often a masculine figure, despised, adulated, sacrificed or eroticised. Alexandre Fandard’s creations as a visual artist and choreographer never remain fixated in one form and bring to the stage all these rock-solid archetypes. In this new research in solo, he rehabilitates the youth from the suburbs as a symbol. 

Smaïl Kanouté - Never21
Never Twenty One… when the number 21 becomes a cursed number, symbol of shortened lives.
Never Twenty One… when the number 21 becomes a cursed number, symbol of shortened lives. Is living without reaching the age of majority a life? Dying in childhood, what does it mean? Dancing a missing child, what does that induce? An innocence in the movement? And for loved ones, what traces does mourning leave on a body? What dialogue is created between the visible and the invisible? Scientists say the body loses 21 grams upon death. Is it the weight of the soul? That of emotions, bodily energy, memories of a lifetime?
In an urban atmosphere tinged with shamanism, Smaïl will resuscitate the words / ills of the victims and their families. Through his bodies that has become a graphic sculpture, a surface of expression and claim, an object of resilience, a memorial… like a wandering spirit, he will tell us about their lives stolen, torn away, sacrificed.

Through him, we will relive the moment of the murder, but also the encounters and the roles that each takes in this arms business which eats away at this discriminated youth from poor neighbourhoods. An inevitable chess game where some, imprisoned in mafia circles, are pushed to play with their lives, and where others, innocent, find themselves unexpectedly on the trajectory of stray bullets.

Christian Guerematchi - FUNK (work-in-progress)
The dance performance FUNK is a physical approach to the psyche, in which our passed traditions reside. Choreographer Christian Guerematchi shows that a shared past has crawled under the skin of five performers. Their body responds, unconsciously, to internalized traumas. On the other hand, their bodies recognize the cultural traditions - dance, music and language - that are in their blood and passed on from generation to generation.
FUNK portraits how black bodies move together, how they make themselves heard. It is the vibrancy of the black culture, the boogaloo and the soul train fueled by the music. The protagonist proclaims the voice of Mother Nature. The 'ancestral' feminine energy from which they were born, the same energy that wants to bring them back to their authentic selves in order to be able to heal.
The authentic and physical expression of the five performers emerges through the poetry of Sun Ra - the godfather of afrofuturism. Christian is inspired by the work 'Black Skin, White Masks' by Frantz Fanon. In this novel he looks at racism in the context of psychology. With the knowledge that lies in Fanon's words, Guerematchi makes a physical translation of the 'black experience’.

Alexandre Fandard

Alexandre Fandard is a visual artist and choreographer, like his pictorial works, his choreographic language does not freeze into a form, the genesis of his choreographic writing comes from the need to express what cannot be said in words. After a brief stint at the International Dance Academy in Paris, he became a performer in director Brett Bailey's work called Exhibit b for three consecutive years while continuing his work as a painter. This experience strengthened his taste and desire to see landscape space, movement and dance through a radically asserted pictorial aesthetic, where the image speaks as much as the body and is one.

Comme un Symbole is presented as part of the Aerowaves Top Twenty22 selection.

Smaïl Kanouté

Smail Kanouté is a versatile artist, graduate of ENSAD, graphic designer, screen printer, visual artist and professional dancer. He has had several successes in the fashion world, including for the stylist Xuly Bët. For two years, he has danced years in Raphaëlle Delaunay's BITTER SUGAR and has also danced in Radhouane El Meddeb's show HEROES since 2014. He is part of a young generation that renews visual and aesthetic codes, all disciplines included. His pictorial works are recognisable by their expressive motifs: a kind of modern and abstract alphabet.

Never21 is presented as part of the Aerowaves Top Twenty22 selection.

Christian Guerematchi

Christian Guerematchi is a Slovenian maker and performer with a ballet and contemporary background. He danced with the National Ballet in Maribor under the direction of Edward Clug. In 2012 he was nominated for De Zwaan Best Dance Performance for his role in ROCCO by Emio Greco and Pieter C. Scholten.

His makership started with White Noise (2019) in collaboration with Otion and in 2020 Christian created his solo performance N.A.M. – Non-Aligned Movement; an afro-futuristic journey to the Balkans. In the coming years, Christian will develop his choreographic artistry at ICK Artist Space.

In his work, Christian explores the codes of the black body and definitions of black identity in Western society. He wants to open space for discussions about the ‘concept’ of Black Identity through the language of the body. For this, he chooses an interdisciplinary approach, in which he deepens insight into different social dance styles, which he analyzes, deconstructs and gives meaning in his own way.