On view

Le Sacre du printemps (Tandvärkstallen)

Musée d’art de Joliette, Quebec, Canada

Le Sacre du printemps (Tandvärkstallen) 2021/2022
Zheng Bo 鄭波
On view 30.9.23 – 14.1.24
at Musée d’art de Joliette, Quebec, Canada
Part of the exhibition Biophilia
Curators: Marianne Cloutier and Anne-Marie St-Jean Aubre

To be part of the world: this expression, which is also the title of an important book on ecofeminism [Faire partie du monde : réflexions écoféministes], supports the notion that to stop destroying the planet, we must first break the ideology of domination underlying our societies: domination over individuals, domination over people and territories, domination over nature and what we consider “inferior” forms of life. This involves examining and undoing the power relations and inequalities that arise when it comes to environmental issues. Because although we all, to varying degrees, have a role to play in this, our ability to act in the context of this crisis is far from equal.

The works presented here explore the ways in which we come in contact with nature from the specific angle of desire, with all of its ambivalence and contradictions. How do we reconcile our yearning to know and discover, to grow and enrich ourselves and our quest for ever-increasing physical and material comforts, with the restraint that, from now on, must be at the centre of our concerns? How can we undo the complex entanglement of land and resource exploitation and appropriation our post-industrial and post-colonial societies still rely on? These works address the limits of regeneration and fertility, but also the intrinsic strength of living beings and their transformative capabilities.

– Marianne Cloutier and Anne-Marie St-Jean Aubre

Le Sacre du printemps (Tandvärsktallen)
Zheng Bo seeks to cultivate eco-sensitive relationships between human beings and beings of the plant world. The first iteration of Le Sacre du printemps was a search to find forms of movement for a kind of eco-sexual dance, where humans like pine trees were considered dancing bodies. It posed a great challenge even to imagine what such a dance would look like;The pine trees are more than 20 meters tall and between 60 and 300 years old, much bigger and older than the human dancers. 

I wish to explore that which don’t revolve around humans, but rather focus on the other living world. In this case the realm of the forest. Is it possible to interact with it and not have the human in the center?

– Zheng Bo

Ecosensibility: Zheng Bo
Eco-facilitation, artistic development, production:
DACE – Dance Art Critical Ecology
Rickard Borgström & Rebecca Chentinell
Dancers: Paolo de Venecia Gile, Andreas Haglund, Mikko Hyvönen, Adriano Wilfert Jensen, and Ossi Niskala Cinematographer: Adam Nilsson
Postproduction: Wu Ping-Chung

* The first part took shape as video installation; An Eco-Sexual Dance in Högsveden Nature forest, that was exhibited in Symbiosis – Erotics curated by DACE – Rickard Borgström & Rebecca Chentinell at Färgfabriken fall 2021, followed by the world premier of the dance/film; Le Sacre du printemps (Tandvärkstallen) at the 59th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia The Milk of Dreams. 

Production: DACE- Dance Art Critical Ecology

Support: DACE – Dance Art Critical Ecology, 香港藝術發展局 Hong Kong Arts Development Council (HKADC), Suomen Kulttuurirahasto, Frame Contemporary Art Finland, Kulturrådet, Konstnärsnämnden, Nordisk Kulturfond, Nordisk kulturkontakt, Färgfabriken and Stockholms konstnärliga högskola