Following on from a series of pieces in emblematic places of modern architecture in the USA, the Californian artists return to Paris with the Modern Living project. Taking over two iconic venues designed by Le Corbusier, they explore the sensuality nesting in the shadows of modernism.
Le Corbusier’s Villa Savoye and the Apartment-studio are two living spaces which are just as much to do with the invention of an architectural language as they are with new ways of living. After probing deep into couple-based metamorphoses in Reusable Parts/Endless Love and Timelining, presented at the Festival d’Automne à Paris in 2017, their intimate lives, daily rituals, and the domestic space are at the heart of Modern Living, Clockwork and Shindler/Glass – two performances and one film, respectively. In the hands of Gerard & Kelly, the Apartment-studio situated in the Molitor block of flats becomes a machine for marking time, via the interplay between moving bodies and light. At the Villa Savoye, meanwhile, the inspiration behind the choreography is the brief affair between Le Corbusier and the American dancer Josephine Baker. It infuses modernist perfection with playful sensuality and subversive might. The concrete and glass box becomes a boat floating on the horizon in which all expected norms and frontiers are, for the duration of the journey, interrupted or suspended.
Lastly, the film Schindler/Glass brings together in the same work the performances carried out at Philip Johnson’s Glass House and the house of R.M. Schindler in the USA. Its choreography follows the contours of the painstakingly desynchronised rhythms of the inhabitants of a house.
Gerard & Kelly, Modern Living, 2019. Villa Savoye, avec le soutien de la Fondation d’entreprise Hermès dans le cadre de son programme New Settings. Matthew Barbin, Julia Eichten, Damontae Hack, Kehari Hutchinson, Emara Neymour-Jackson, Jasmine Sugar. Photo : Martin Argyroglo © FLC/ADAGP
Gerard & Kelly, Modern Living, 2019. Villa Savoye, avec le soutien de la Fondation d’entreprise Hermès dans le cadre de son programme New Settings. Damontae Hack. Photo : Martin Argyroglo © FLC/ADAGP
Gerard & Kelly, Modern Living, 2019. Villa Savoye, with the support of the Hermès Corporate Foundation as part of its New Settings program.. Julia Eichten. Photo : Martin Argyroglo © FLC/ADAGP
Gerard & Kelly, Modern Living, 2019. Villa Savoye, with the support of the Hermès Corporate Foundation as part of its New Settings program. Photo : Martin Argyroglo © FLC/ADAGP
Gerard & Kelly, Modern Living, 2019. Appartement-atelier Le Corbusier, with the support of the Hermès Corporate Foundation as part of its New Settings program. Photo : Martin Argyroglo © FLC/ADAGP
Gerard & Kelly, Modern Living, 2019. Appartement-atelier Le Corbusier, with the support of the Hermès Corporate Foundation as part of its New Settings program. Photo : Martin Argyroglo © FLC/ADAGP
Gerard & Kelly, Modern Living, 2019. Appartement-atelier Le Corbusier, with the support of the Hermès Corporate Foundation as part of its New Settings program. Photo : Martin Argyroglo © FLC/ADAGP
Festival d’Automne à Paris
28th September – 18th October 2019
Concept and choreography: Gerard & Kelly
With Matthieu Barbin, Julia Eichten, Damontae Hack, Kehari Hutchinson, Emara Neymour-Jackson, Marlène Saldana, Jasmine Sugar
Costumes: Stacey Berman
Musical arrangements: Joanne Vance
Vocal work: Dalila Khatir
Percussions: David Paycha
Direction of production: Paul Briottet, Audrey Pouhe Njall, Sheridan Telford
