Wu Tsang, Moved by the Motion & guests

Carmen embodies a set of intersecting, often conflicting identities that might be called subaltern. Her story is marked by issues of race, gender, class, and more. She is a woman among men, a Roma among non-Roma, a cigar maker among industrial magnates, a libertarian among soldiers and bullfighters. From a philosophical perspective, Carmen represents, above all, freedom. And it is precisely that freedom which leads to her rejection and, ultimately, to her death—the only way the myth can reach resolution. If flamenco is part of the same cultural soil from which the myth of Carmen grows, we must ask: what is the nature of the exoticization and orientalization present in both the myth and the art form, and how does it persist today. Alongside the installation La gran mentira de la muerte presented at the Fondation Cartier, visual artist Wu Tsang invites a group of flamenco and non-flamenco artists to share experiences around these themes through music, dance, and improvisation.