Artist: Tarik Kiswanson
Exhibition title: AS DEEP AS I COULD REMEMBER, AS FAR AS I COULD SEE
This post is selected by: Emiliano Aversa
Venue: Lafayette Anticipations – Fondation d’entreprise Galeries Lafayette, Paris, France
Date: May 17 – 20, 2018
Photography: © Martin Argyroglo / all images copyright and courtesy of the artist and Lafayette Anticipations – Fondation d’entreprise Galeries Lafayette
Note: November, 2019 Performa 19, New York
AS DEEP AS I COULD REMEMBER, AS FAR AS I COULD SEE
For this new production, Kiswanson transfigures his writing into a coming-of-age narrative performed by a group of children moving freely amongst the audience members. Fragments of childhood sensations and adult reflections are combined and arranged poetically to create a sound landscape. Through this performance, the artist offers a polyphony of human experiences. AS DEEP AS I COULD REMEMBER, AS FAR AS I COULD SEE expresses with tenderness the questions, hesitations and doubts felt by all children, while exploring questions of borders and displacements, but also the construction of the self in a cosmopolitan world. With this live work carried by a phratry, the artist meditates on the human condition, in constant movement.
This performance is the culmination of two years of support provided to the artist by the Lafayette Anticipations teams. Throughout the production process, Tarik Kiswanson conceived all of the details of this total work of art: from the kinetic sculptures, to the costumes that borrow equally from traditional Middle-Eastern clothing and modern Occidental garb.
AS DEEP AS I COULD REMEMBER, AS FAR AS I COULD SEE is based on texts written by the artist and performed by the children.
Production
Sculptures
The suspended sculptures were conceived by Tarik Kiswanson who names them Father Forms. These pieces are composed of polished mirror stainless steel blades, cut and sanded by hand. 4-meters tall, the Father Forms graze the floor and can be put into motion by the children. These kinetic sculptures were developed by Lafayette Anticipations’ production team with the support of carlier I gebauer (Berlin).
Costumes
In partnership with Mode Estime, Tarik Kiswanson conceived a clothing line for his performance. Located on the Île Saint-Denis, Mode Estime is a fashion workshop carried by a social reintegration mission. The workshop’s team creates on site all of its productions. For his performance, Kiswanson designed three garments (caftan, welding outfit and suits) of which he combined the constitutive elements to create new silhouettes.
Alice Merle and Patricia Levalois, from Mode Estime, followed the development of the costumes (from the prototypes to their production) and benefited from the technical advice of Julia Hulshoff-Medart, who works at the Galeries Lafayette style bureau.
Performers
The children performing Tarik Kiswanson’s poetic texts study at the école bilingue Jeannine Manuel school in Paris. The school opened generously its doors to the artist and Lafayette Anticipations teams so as to pursue a six-month long pedagogical partnership, under the direction of Sara Barton. The école bilingue is the central partner of AS DEEP AS I COULD REMEMBER, AS FAR AS I COULD SEE.
Cast
Concept, texts and costumes: Tarik Kiswanson
Performers, from the école bilingue Jeannine Manuel:
Katherine Adams, Nicholas Bradbury,
Mary Caroline Cox, Mélusine Dauphin, Eva Dos Santos, Clément Guilherme, Gabriel de Lanversin,
Félix McGeever, Gaspard Rouffin,
Sebastiao Torres Pereira and Vadim Vadanici
Rehearsal supervisor: Sara Barton Curatorial advisor: Charles Aubin
Production team: Dirk Meylaerts, Aude Mohammedi- Merquiol, Romain Bertel and Lisa Audureau Production consultant: Margot Videcoq
Sound engineers: Benjamin Magot and Kerwin Rolland Costume production: Mode Estime
