" This is not addressed to white people, primarily. Though it doesn't put you down in any way...it simply ignores you. For my people need all the inspiration and love that they can get.”
Alphaville Noir series (2019)
[ La Manutention residency project , Palais de Tokyo, Paris, FR ]
Alphaville Noir was a performance cycle created for and presented at the Palais de Tokyo. Each happening exclusively all-black produced and enacted time-based and/or performance artworks. It was a survey around the black body in space, acting upon/creating its own architectural integrity.
The underlying principle of the event was to operate, as black people, in a European sphere in a way that addresses each other first and foremost. It was to create neutral, fertile ground for and by us, to foster an internal dialogue that emanates outward in a way that is always, at its core, self-nourishing.
The experience is largely based on two and a half years of research in movement and architecture as it relates to worldwide Afro-diasporic cultural, socio-political and spiritual identity, conducted between France, the USA, China and Haïti.
I’ve created a structure inspired by Haruki Murakami’s After Dark; each evening unfolds as an abstract continuation of the one before. Each event will represent one of three phases of a single night; Dusk, Nightfall and Midnight.
The space was divided into four main platforms, the night progresses from one quadrant to the next, like the face of a clock.
The underlying principle of the event was to operate, as black people, in a European sphere in a way that addresses each other first and foremost. It was to create neutral, fertile ground for and by us, to foster an internal dialogue that emanates outward in a way that is always, at its core, self-nourishing.
The experience is largely based on two and a half years of research in movement and architecture as it relates to worldwide Afro-diasporic cultural, socio-political and spiritual identity, conducted between France, the USA, China and Haïti.
I’ve created a structure inspired by Haruki Murakami’s After Dark; each evening unfolds as an abstract continuation of the one before. Each event will represent one of three phases of a single night; Dusk, Nightfall and Midnight.
The space was divided into four main platforms, the night progresses from one quadrant to the next, like the face of a clock.
phase i : dusk
phase ii : nightfall
phase iii : midnight
Curated by Vittoria Matarrese
Project mgmt : Manon Klein & Alice Giudicenti
Production & studio mgmt : Rachel Halickman
Casting : Ibrahim Tarouhit (HYBRA Casting)
Styling : Jean Paul Paula, assisted by Merveille Malaki
Custom headpieces : Nathan Moy
Floral : Anatomie Fleur
Video production : Western Promises (Chloé Wilk & Nicolas Martin)
DoP : Léo Hinstin
Ass't Director : Nicolas Martin
Makeup : MAC Cosmetics France
Photos : Ayka Lux
Project mgmt : Manon Klein & Alice Giudicenti
Production & studio mgmt : Rachel Halickman
Casting : Ibrahim Tarouhit (HYBRA Casting)
Styling : Jean Paul Paula, assisted by Merveille Malaki
Custom headpieces : Nathan Moy
Floral : Anatomie Fleur
Video production : Western Promises (Chloé Wilk & Nicolas Martin)
DoP : Léo Hinstin
Ass't Director : Nicolas Martin
Makeup : MAC Cosmetics France
Photos : Ayka Lux
Photos by Ayka Lux