War | Oppression | Dystopia was first curated by Adrien Sina in 2020 as a contemporary section of his Feminine Futures exhibitions, anticipating future tragedies. It has acquired a dramatic urgency with Russia’s inhumane aggression towards Ukraine. Premonitory dances in devastated environments, intersubjective dynamics affected by unexpected dangers, dances of love, tolerance, resistance and resilience, were complemented by dances performed in the midst of destruction of war, leading to a vertiginous level of emotion and abstraction.
Following a presentation at the Venice Biennale in June 2022, the film programme will be screened at the Hors Pistes / Off Tracks Festival, Centre Pompidou, Paris, on 27 January 2023. The related exhibition is scheduled at Summerhall War Memorial Gallery, Edinburgh, from January to March 2023.
The screening of War | Oppression | Dystopia will be followed by a discussion between Adrien Sina and Professor Sarah Wilson (The Courtauld).
Adrien Sina is dance historian, curator of ‘Feminine Futures’, Performa Biennial, New York, 2009, and Le Consortium Contemporary Art Centre, Dijon, 2014; ‘Feminine Futures: The Membrane of the Dream I & II’, Museum Langmatt, Switzerland, 2015. He has contributed to ‘Art, Lies and Videotape: Exposing Performance’, Tate Liverpool, 2003; ‘Traces du sacré’ and ‘Danser sa vie’, Centre Pompidou, 2008/2011; ‘Futurism’, Tate Modern, 2009; ‘Inventing Abstraction’, MOMA, New York, 2013; ‘The Great Mother’, Palazzo Reale, Milan, 2015; ‘Elles font l’Abstraction’, Centre Pompidou & ‘Women in Abstraction’, Guggenheim Bilbao, 2021-2022; ‘The Milk of Dreams’, La Biennale di Venezia, 2022. Publications: ‘Feminine Futures: Performance, Dance, War, Politics & Eroticism’ in 2011 & ‘Feminine Futures: Expression / Abstraction – The Membrane of Dreams. Avant-garde expressive & abstract dance through photography & experimental film’, 2023. www.adrien-sina.net
Organised by Professor Sarah Wilson (The Courtauld)
