Artist: Brice Dellsperger
Exhibition title: Solitaires
Venue: Air de Paris, Paris, France
Date: June 20 – July 30, 2020
Photography: all images copyright and courtesy of the artist and Air de Paris
For his new solo sow at Air de Paris, Brice Dellsperger presents two new films «Body Double 36» and «Body Double 37».
«My Body Double videos are like doubles of movie sequences from the 70s or 80s: the title refers to Brian de Palma’s film (Body Double, 1984) . To this day the series includes forty films with various running times, where the obsessive motif is the body of the double in mainstream movies. Following a rigorous but emancipating process, each selected scene is re-enacted by a single transvestite actor or actress, a super character who interprets all the parts by becoming double.»
By appropriating the linear/ authoritarian form of a movie, the Body Double films aim at disrupting normative sexual genres through the means of a camp aesthetic.»
Aerobics were the fashion in the 80s!
James Bridges’ Perfect was released in 1985. The film superficially describes human relationships in a gym club in Los Angeles, seen through the eyes of a journalist (John Travolta) who is beguiled by an androgynous gym coach (Jamie Lee Curtis).
Studies on the postmodern body in contemporary American society are linked to the context of the 80s, a period which recognized an ideal body-object caught up by the AIDS epidemic. The identification of the HIV virus had a major influence on the perception and representation of bodies and sexuality.
The movie sequence on which Body Double 36 is based is the one in the gym class. The story is reduced to a minimum, gestures and looks are evocative, here we witness a true symbiosis between bodies, a perfect synchronism while playing the pseudo hit Shock Me, in a pure moment of collective experience similar to an orgasm. Different types are represented, but strangely they get mixed up, which according to me might well define a new Trans identity.
Today’s Trans-body should be paying tribute to the fitness activity of the 80s! To its ambiguity, its bodily transformations, the transgression of bodies augmented and sculpted through personal accomplishment.
Subjects are staged and represented in a new installation. Using mirrors and enlargements like a kaleidoscope, the sequence is doubled several times. I invited artist Jean Biche, who performed at the Manko Cabaret in Paris, to interpret all the characters.
– Brice Dellsperger, 2019
Brice Dellsperger, Exhibition views « Solitaires », Air de Paris, Romainville, 20.06 – 30.07.2020, © Photo Marc Domage, Courtesy Air de Paris
Brice Dellsperger, Exhibition views « Solitaires », Air de Paris, Romainville, 20.06 – 30.07.2020, © Photo Marc Domage, Courtesy Air de Paris
Brice Dellsperger, Exhibition views « Solitaires », Air de Paris, Romainville, 20.06 – 30.07.2020, © Photo Marc Domage, Courtesy Air de Paris
Brice Dellsperger, Exhibition views « Solitaires », Air de Paris, Romainville, 20.06 – 30.07.2020, © Photo Marc Domage, Courtesy Air de Paris
Brice Dellsperger, Exhibition views « Solitaires », Air de Paris, Romainville, 20.06 – 30.07.2020, © Photo Marc Domage, Courtesy Air de Paris
Brice Dellsperger, Exhibition views « Solitaires », Air de Paris, Romainville, 20.06 – 30.07.2020, © Photo Marc Domage, Courtesy Air de Paris
Brice Dellsperger, Exhibition views « Solitaires », Air de Paris, Romainville, 20.06 – 30.07.2020, © Photo Marc Domage, Courtesy Air de Paris
Brice Dellsperger, Exhibition views « Solitaires », Air de Paris, Romainville, 20.06 – 30.07.2020, © Photo Marc Domage, Courtesy Air de Paris
Brice Dellsperger, Exhibition views « Solitaires », Air de Paris, Romainville, 20.06 – 30.07.2020, © Photo Marc Domage, Courtesy Air de Paris
Brice Dellsperger, Body Double 36, 2019, installation, double projection synchronized, film 2K, format, 2.39 letterbox, fichier ProRes, 422HQ, sound, 08 min. 58 sec., looped, Courtesythe artist and Air de Paris, Romainville
Brice Dellsperger, Body Double 36, 2019, installation, double projection synchronized, film 2K, format, 2.39 letterbox, fichier ProRes, 422HQ, sound, 08 min. 58 sec., looped, Courtesythe artist and Air de Paris, Romainville
Brice Dellsperger, Body Double 36, 2019, installation, double projection synchronized, film 2K, format, 2.39 letterbox, fichier ProRes, 422HQ, sound, 08 min. 58 sec., looped, Courtesythe artist and Air de Paris, Romainville
Brice Dellsperger, Body Double 36, 2019, installation, double projection synchronized, film 2K, format, 2.39 letterbox, fichier ProRes, 422HQ, sound, 08 min. 58 sec., looped, Courtesythe artist and Air de Paris, Romainville
Brice Dellsperger, Body Double 36, 2019, installation, double projection synchronized, film 2K, format, 2.39 letterbox, fichier ProRes, 422HQ, sound, 08 min. 58 sec., looped, Courtesythe artist and Air de Paris, Romainville
Brice Dellsperger, Body Double 36, 2019, installation, double projection synchronized, film 2K, format, 2.39 letterbox, fichier ProRes, 422HQ, sound, 08 min. 58 sec., looped, Courtesythe artist and Air de Paris, Romainville
Brice Dellsperger, Body Double 37, 2020, film 2k, H264 vers Apple ProRes 422, 2048 x 1080, sound, 3 min 55 sec., looped, Courtesythe artist and Air de Paris, Romainville
Brice Dellsperger, Body Double 37, 2020, film 2k, H264 vers Apple ProRes 422, 2048 x 1080, sound, 3 min 55 sec., looped, Courtesythe artist and Air de Paris, Romainville
Brice Dellsperger, Body Double 37, 2020, film 2k, H264 vers Apple ProRes 422, 2048 x 1080, sound, 3 min 55 sec., looped, Courtesythe artist and Air de Paris, Romainville
Brice Dellsperger, Body Double 37, 2020, film 2k, H264 vers Apple ProRes 422, 2048 x 1080, sound, 3 min 55 sec., looped, Courtesythe artist and Air de Paris, Romainville
Brice Dellsperger, Body Double 37, 2020, film 2k, H264 vers Apple ProRes 422, 2048 x 1080, sound, 3 min 55 sec., looped, Courtesythe artist and Air de Paris, Romainville
Brice Dellsperger, Body Double 37, 2020, film 2k, H264 vers Apple ProRes 422, 2048 x 1080, sound, 3 min 55 sec., looped, Courtesythe artist and Air de Paris, Romainville
Brice Dellsperger, Body Double 37, 2020, film 2k, H264 vers Apple ProRes 422, 2048 x 1080, sound, 3 min 55 sec., looped, Courtesythe artist and Air de Paris, Romainville
Brice Dellsperger, Disney Kills, 2017, gouache on paper, 11,5 x 13,5 cm, Photo Marc Domage, Courtesy the artist and Air de Paris, Romainville
Brice Dellsperger, Nude at a glance, 2017, gouache on paper, 12,5 x 12,5 cm, Photo DR, Courtesy the artist and Air de Paris, Romainville
Brice Dellsperger, Jean-Luc, 2017, gouache on paper, 12,5 x 12,5 cm, Photo Marc Domage, Courtesy the artist and Air de Paris, Romainville
Brice Dellsperger, Fire Queen, 2017, gouache on paper, 12,5 x 12,5 cm, Photo Marc Domage, Courtesy the artist and Air de Paris, Romainville
Brice Dellsperger, Nude in a box, 2017, gouache on paper, 12,5 x 12,5 cm, Photo Marc Domage, Courtesy the artist and Air de Paris, Romainville
Brice Dellsperger, She Cat She, 2017, gouache on paper, 12,5 x 12,5 cm, Photo Marc Domage, Courtesy the artist and Air de Paris, Romainville
Brice Dellsperger, Angie said : “Meet me at the Met” featuring Alex Katz and Tom Palmore, 2019, gouache sur papier, 13,5 x 23 cm, Photo Marc Domage, Courtesy the artist and Air de Paris, Romainville
Brice Dellsperger, Sweet Venus Xtravaganza, 2020, gouache on paper, 18 x 12,5 cm, Photo Marc Domage, Courtesy the artist and Air de Paris, Romainville
Brice Dellsperger, Landslide, 2020, gouache on paper, Photo Marc Domage, Courtesy the artist and Air de Paris, Romainville
Brice Dellsperger, Bubbles in Zombies, 2020, gouache on paper, 18 x 12,5 cm, Photo Marc Domage, Courtesy the artist and Air de Paris, Romainville