Trajal Harrell
the collection
septembersept 4 – 6
© Aurelius Carson ©
Thursday september 4
19h
Friday september 5
19h
Saturday september 6
18h
Choreography, costumes and sound Trajal Harrell. With Vânia Doutel Vaz, Maria Ferreira Silva, Challenge Gumbodete, Trajal Harrell, New Kyd, Perle Palombe, Stephen Thompson, Songhay Toldon, Ondrej Vidlar. Dramaturgy Sara Jansen. Scenography Nadja Sofie Eller, Trajal Harrell. Lighting Stéfane Perraud, Trajal Harrell. Technical management and sound Santiago Latorre. Production, international relations and management Björn Pätz.
Production Festival d'Automne à Paris
Co-production Kunstenfestivaldesarts (Brussels); Holland Festival; Tanzquartier Wien
ART HAPPENS Broadcast
The Festival d'Automne à Paris is co-producer of this show.
Two years after the Portrait dedicated to him, Trajal Harrell draws upon the intense years of his Tokyo studio in order to further his dialogue with the experimental dance of Japanese artist Tatsumi Hijikata. In the collection, the American choreographer's propensity for undermining major forms with a minor approach finds a new level of accomplishment.
In his quest for a true dance experience, Tatsumi Hijikata founded a place for living and working in sixties Tokyo, named the Asubesuto-kan (Asbestos Hall). The paths of many artists crossed each other there. They created new work, slept, drank and debated different topics, giving rise to what continues to be one of the most significant moments in contemporary dance in Japan. After touring to major theatres, Trajal Harrell brings back to life, in the company of complicit artists, the intense, experimental spirit of this studio during the unique, free-form, multidisciplinary performative evenings. the collection was born from this open-ended process, under the watchful gaze of the audience. It brings us a host of snapshots of a creative process open to chance, risk and encounters, blurring the boundary between research and result. They all testify to a quest for sophistication, which in turn filters into the way the work is presented.
The public is invited to explore, in all the spaces of Artagon Pantin, the four pieces, presented successively and performed by Trajal Harrell as well as several of his company’s leading dancers.
Arena : loosely based on the only two characters, the dealer and the client, in the play In the Solitude of the Cottonfields by Bernard-Marie Koltes
A Ghost Ballet : The notion of the black and white leotard ballet takes a spin
The Powder Rooms : A series of different soloists each perform a voyeuristic trip through a diptych of light and dark
Five Friends in Five Acts : A duet for three performers - Trajal Harrell, Songhay Toldon, and Perle Palombe - inspired by The Five Friends exhibition of work by Robert Rauschenberg, Cy Twombly, Jasper Johns, Merce Cunningham, and John Cage.
