Chorégraphie d'État de Tania El Khoury

Chorégraphie d'État deconstructs the gestures of police forces and border patrols to reveal the dramaturgy of state-perpetrated violence. This multimedia installation-performance uncovers the militarisation of police training shaped by racialised surveillance, spatial exclusion, and the neutralisation of resistance.

Female choreographers from diverse practices around the world are invited to create choreographic notations as evidence of these power structures. Drawing inspiration from protest movements, the installation presents videos of choreographic scores of resistance intended to be activated by performers and embodied by the public, in a celebration of self-defence. With Chorégraphie d'État, Tania El Khoury approaches choreography as a form of analysis, allowing her to uncover a pattern: what is perceived as a set of isolated and accidental cases of state-perpetrated violence is in reality conceptualised and repeated according to a calculated dramaturgy. To do this, the artist gathers the different forms in which choreography is notated and archived – descriptive or poetic texts, schematic drawings, movement analysis systems, video – and uses them to annotate incidents of state violence. In the installation space, the presentation and dissemination of these elements coexist with the performance, placing the public in the position of witness, in a state of vigilance. This project is the new chapter of a work that – for over ten years – has explored interactivity with the public and made visible the abuses of power that shape our daily and political lives. Tania El Khoury has thus addressed gender-based violence in Maybe If You Choreograph Me, You Will Feel Better (2011) or the political instrumentalisation of the Lebanese electricity grid with The Search for Power (2018). For Chorégraphie d'État, she draws particular inspiration from protest movements in public spaces and self-defence tactics. As it is activated in different cities and countries, the project is adapted – in collaboration with dancers – to create a collective memory of state violence and resistance, through the language of movement.

Vincent Théval

Duration: 1h

Category: Cr