Photo by Agathe Poupeney
LACE will present O Solitude, My sweetest choice!, a dance performance by Paris and Tunisia based choreographer Radhouane El Meddeb. The project will take two parts. The initial research stage will include a movement workshop that explores notions of the Other and the dominant gaze in relation to dance. The second component will premiere a newly commissioned performance in which El Meddeb depicts a single figure – his body – at center stage in order to question the figure of the feared Other and to expose geopolitical issues that define the individual. The project will employ moments of proximity and vulnerability to undermine racial assumptions. If the political context defines one’s body, how is the Arab subject perceived in the West, and in an urban mythologized context such as Los Angeles? Considering the highly mediatized (and stylized) portrayal of Arab regions and events, the project undertakes the difficult task of questioning how we, in the U.S., encounter and digest information on current global events. Closer to home, and to the body, the project highlights the way in which one’s identity is formed through the social and geopolitical context. El Meddeb will address the Western gaze on the Arab body, as well as the Arab body’s impact on Western understandings of Arab culture, of contemporary political upheaval, and on the possibility for dialog and a meeting ground.
“Loneliness is the main theme … The evil of our century. It is the foundation of this new project.” – Radhouane El Meddeb
- $14,000 to support O Solitude, My sweetest choice! (MAP 2015)
- $4,684 to general operating support for Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions
