(LA)HORDE

The French trio, which will open this festival on the big stage, shows another facet of its radically contemporary artistic work with a large performative installation.

(LA)HORDE have gotten widespread attention for their post-internet choreographies e.g. at the 2018 Summer Festival, for pop phenomenon Christine and the Queens, and for their recent appointement as directors of the Ballet de Marseille. With remarkable exhibitions at, among others, the Fondation Cartier and the Palais de Tokyo, they have expanded their interdisciplinary approach into film-installation and performance. Now they are adapting THE BEAST for the 1000sqm Vorhalle – a piece created as part of their Nuit Blanche exhibition, THE MASTER’S TOOLS, in Paris. The work shares its name with the car of the U.S. president, and refers to limousines as symbols of obscene power and luxury, often destroyed in riots. »We the People,« the first sentence of the United States Constitution, is now written on a destroyed limousine at the center of (LA)HORDE’s installation. A choreographed cleaning trolley repeatedly wipes the slogan »Tomorrow is cancelled« off the floor. Performers take over the car, and perform ambivalent loops that blend affirmative debasement and disillusioned rebellion. With an Instagram-compatible aesthetic, THE BEAST explores contemporary media discourse about power, change and new beginnings.