Some of La\u00e2bissi\u2019s recent works are explicitly aligned with a conception of dance that breaks with academic tradition and is open to an exchange with other art forms. The diptych consisting of the choreography \u00c9cran somnambule<\/em> (2009) and the performed lecture La part du rite<\/em> (2012) are a dual tribute to German Expressionist dancer Mary Wigman (1886\u200a\u2013<\/em>\u200a1973), who, in a spirit similar to the visual artists of her era, sought to discover movements emanating from the depths of the body. Wigman was friends with painters Emil Nolde and Ludwig Kirchner, whom she invited to her shows and even to her rehearsals, so they could witness every minute detail of her approach. Her choreographies, which allowed the painters to discover just how far the body can be distorted when repressed impulses are allowed to surface, inspired spontaneous paintings. The dancer and artists were driven by the same concerns and participated in the same way in the global movement of Expressionism, which was already breaking down the boundaries among disciplines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In two different forms, \u00c9cran somnambule<\/em> and La part du rite<\/em> present a quest that follows in the footsteps of Wigman\u2019s work. The first piece is a reinterpretation (or perhaps even a remake, as we shall see further on) of Witch Dance<\/em>, \u201ca choreographic oddity\u201d7<\/sup><\/a><\/span> 7 <\/a> - Latifa La\u00e2bissi, interview with Anna Colin in \u201c4 T\u00eates et une oreille\u201d, Le Journal de la Triennale No. 2<\/em> (February 2012).<\/span> in which the German dancer, wearing a Japanese mask with an enigmatic smile, is seated on the ground. Accompanied by percussive sounds, she seems to be performing a Dionysian rite. The first version of this choreography was performed in 1914. A second version, performed in 1926, was preserved in a short film of under two minutes, which served as a starting point for La\u00e2bissi\u2019s work. Performed on stage over a period of thirty-two minutes, her piece is like a slow-motion version of the film in terms of both sound (the soundtrack was extended in a recording studio) and movement. The way she has adapted the original piece to a new context is reminiscent of Douglas Gordon\u2019s 24 Hour Psycho<\/em> (1993), in which the shower scene in the Hitchcock movie is drawn out over an entire day. In both cases, through the effect of a temporal magnifying glass, the remake underscores the most striking aspects of the original work, suggesting new ways of appreciating it today. La part du rite <\/em>is a lecture on German dance in the 1920s given by theorist Isabelle Launay, who is wrapped in large white bath towels and looks like a modern-day mummy or ghost. Her bundled-up body is handled by the choreographer who is dressed in black and seems like a strange witch or undertaker involved in a mysterious rite. The lecture, which the woman has difficulty delivering because she is constantly being moved and shaken, seems to come from a grotesque after-life, emanating from a corpse to which it is nonetheless still attached. In recent years, several artists (for example, \u00c9ric Duyckaerts) have given talks in which they challenge the autonomy of the word. La\u00e2bissi shows that we are always speaking from an embodied perspective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Other works are located at the crossroads of dance, performance, and cabaret, offering atypical, seemingly disjointed performances that pose compelling questions. La\u00e2bissi often uses striking accessories or visual references to draw in her audience. For example, in Loredreamsong<\/em> (2010), a duo created with African-born dancer Sophiatou Kossoko, she wears a white sheet with two holes for eyes, evoking a funny Halloween costume, the violence of the Klu Klux Klan, and a burka. In the following segment, she paints her face black, pointing to the grotesque, stereotypical, and racist nature of blackface makeup, as applied by white American entertainers in the minstrel shows of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Through these references, Loredreamsong<\/em> critiques prejudices that still exist today, notably in a humorous and hard-hitting segment in which the two choreographers respectively reel off a series of clich\u00e9s about African and Arab women. Likewise, Self Portrait Camouflage<\/em> (2006) is a powerful piece, created with artist and stage designer Nadia Lauro,8<\/sup><\/a><\/span> 8 <\/a> - Nadia Lauro has also worked extensively with Jennifer Lacey. See Alexandra Baudelot, Jennifer Lacey & Nadia Lauro\u200a\u2013\u200aDispositifs chor\u00e9graphiques <\/em>(Dijon: Les Presses du r\u00e9el, 2007).<\/span> with whom La\u00e2bissi has been regularly collaborating ever since. In this piece, La\u00e2bissi appears naked, wearing only a Plains Indian headdress. In a talk given at the \u00c9cole des beaux arts de Nantes in 2009,9<\/sup><\/a><\/span> 9 <\/a> - http:\/\/vimeo.com\/5435980<\/span> she explained her interest in both the political and aesthetic aspects of the human zoos of the early twentieth century: what they revealed about colonial power and our curious gaze toward the Other. By making this history part of her self-portrait, the artist-choreographer brings these concerns directly into the present. The exoticism of the headdress suggests the fate of minorities in contemporary society, emphasized later on in the performance by an imaginary dialogue spoken with a thick Arabic accent and ending with a parody of the children\u2019s song by Pierre Perret. The familiar cheerful melody of \u201cLes jolies colonies de vacances,\u201d sung with an Arabic accent, becomes \u201cles jolies colonies de la France.\u201d10<\/sup><\/a><\/span> 10 <\/a> - A play on the word \u201ccolonie,\u201d which can mean \u201ccommunity\u201d or \u201ccamp\u201d (\u201cfun summer camps\u201d) or \u201ccolony\u201d (\u201cthe fun French colonies\u201d) [Translator\u2019s note].<\/span> A similar approach is adopted in the choreography Histoire par celui qui la raconte<\/em> (2008), in which the artist has the dancers wear animal skins with boots or soccer socks, and makes them give speeches in exaggerated accents from their countries of origin. For La\u00e2bissi, these accents are \u201cmegaphones,\u201d ways to \u201cbring minority voices into the work.\u201d Thus, entire sections of contemporary society are brought into the art milieu, which is often reserved for the cultural and economic elite.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Other works are even further distanced from more usual dance forms and are squarely positioned within the space of contemporary art. Very early on, La\u00e2bissi created works in which choreography was only one element in a much broader performance. Her 2004 work I love like animals<\/em> speaks to a video by another choreographer, Jennifer Lacey, who collaborated with the highly provocative Viennese art collective Gelatin.11<\/sup><\/a><\/span> 11 <\/a> - In 2005, the collective changed its name to Gelitin. <\/span> The video shows artists in a messy studio, painting their bodies and enacting slow, chaotic movements as they search for voluntarily obscene positions of equilibrium, their heads covered by fabric or hoods that come down over their eyes. With these stop-start images of naked arms and legs in the background, La\u00e2bissi, wearing red mittens and a blonde wig that covers her face, also makes slow gestures, turning around on herself as if embarrassed by her own body. She then lists off all the animals she likes, stopping to make loud imitations of their cries. Her performance is in constant dialogue with the images from Lacey\u2019s work, to the point that both the bodies in the video and that of the dancer seem to be questioning one another. A more recent work, Habiter<\/em>, consists of a series of explorations completed between 2006 and 2008 in France and Morocco, and makes reference to protocols put in place by artists since the 1970s. Reminiscent of some of Sophie Calle\u2019s projects, Habiter<\/em> starts with the writing of a small ad placed in newspapers and on posters offering a private artistic performance: \u201cArtist-choreographer seeks person who would like to have a dance project performed in his or her home. The performance is free and will take two hours. For more information, call 06.\u2009.\u2009.\u201d Once the time and place have been set, La\u00e2bissi goes to the home of the person who may or may not watch the choreography. The exercise involves exploring each new environment. Her movements are attuned to the particularities of her surroundings in a way that is reminiscent of Erwin Wurm\u2019s One Minute Sculptures<\/em> and, especially, of Bruce Nauman\u2019s explorations of his studio space.<\/p>\n\n\n\n From his Slow Angle Walk (Beckett Walk)<\/em> and Bouncing in the Corner<\/em> of 1968 to the Mapping the Studio<\/em> videos from the early 2000s,12<\/sup><\/a><\/span> 12 <\/a> - For more information on these works, see, for example, the entries in the Centre Pompidou-sponsored new media encyclopaedia: www.newmedia-art.org\/cgi-bin\/show-art.asp? ID=9000000000067788&LG=FRA&DOC=IDEN&na=Nauman&pna=Bruce.<\/span> Nauman attains a perfect knowledge of his work space, using an approach that is sometimes very close to that of dance. In Bouncing in the Corner<\/em>, Nauman, his face left out of the frame, sways his body forwards and backwards to fit it into the angle of two walls in his studio. La\u00e2bissi is involved in a similar tactile exploration of intimate spaces in strangers\u2019 homes. She builds on Nauman\u2019s work, adding to it the mastery of her gestures and opening a space in which to get to know the Other. Her experiences are documented in films and photos taken by artist friends Jocelyn Cottencin and Sophie Laly, who have the opportunity to exchange with the home\u2019s inhabitants. Dance is thus used to create a relational aesthetic made all the stronger by the artist\u2019s social engagement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n With her free-form creations, filled with scholarly and popular references, La\u00e2bissi sets an example for artists seeking to break down barriers among the arts and disciplines. But beyond this, does she not also invite us to question the role of art and artists within different yet closely entwined levels of culture?<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cLet\u2019s talk about art, says the fool to the idiot\u201d: thus ends Sophiatou Kossoko\u2019s monologue in English at the end of Loredreamsong<\/em>. Using quasi-Shakespearean language, she points to a certain vanity of art that is considered a world unto itself.\u2009.\u2009. unless she is praising idiocy as the \u00adartist\u2019s ultimate tool of subversion?13<\/sup><\/a><\/span> 13 <\/a> - This notion of idiocy is that of Jean-Yves Jouannais, in L\u2019idiotie: Art, vie, politique-m\u00e9thode<\/em> (Paris: Beaux-Arts \u00e9ditions, 2003).<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n [Translated from the French by Vanessa Nicolai]<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/esse.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/78_DO03_Morisset_Laabissi_La-part-du-rite-2.jpg\")
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Photos : \u00a9 Margot Videcoq<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/esse.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/78_DO03_Morisset_Laabissi_La-part-du-rite.jpg\")
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Photo : \u00a9 Nadia Lauro<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/esse.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/78_DO03_Morisset_Labissi_I-love-like-animals.jpg\")
Photos : \u00a9 Sophie Laly<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/esse.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/78_DO03_Morisset_Labissi_I-love-like-animals-2.jpg\")
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