Boys Just Want To Have Fun is a durational multi-disciplinary dance-performance-art piece of 6 to 8 hours, presented in white exhibition/gallery spaces. The work confronts the challenge of deconstructing the ‘man’ and taboos around men’s sensuality and tactility in mainstream Western culture. The work does so by addressing power dynamics and hierarchies of social positioning in the visual art space, politics of object and subject (presenting man as an object), questioning what a body is and how its utterances are informed by its process of becoming, as well as the practice of individual agency in a public space (both for the public and the performers).
In this project, objectification is utilised to examine the ‘man’ as an artwork, a creation, or fiction. We ask, how are men being “man-ified” and “man-ifactured” in our society? The performative act is a durational score, a chain of solos which also includes moments of interaction amongst multiple performers. The public will be actively invited to come and leave as they please, as well as choose their own spatial trajectory in the performance space, fostering a sense of active participation and engagement.
Concept: Israel Aloni
Choreography: Israel Aloni & performers
Performers: Victor Persson, Elias Khanamidi, Tomer Giat, Atte Rimpelö, Enzo Hacquin and Fabio Liberti.
Costumes: Amanda Wisselgren
Camera work: Derek Pedros and Israel Aloni
Video editing: Israel Aloni
Project manager: Johanna Byström
Production assistant: Arūnas Giambino Mozūraitis
Production: ilDance
ilDance is an international and independent contemporary dance company and organisation. It was founded in 2012 by its current Artistic Directors, Israel Aloni and Lee Brummer and is based in Gothenburg, Sweden. They operate on a hybrid model which is correlated to the creativity, courage and agility that are so prominent in ilDance’s choreographic practices.
Performance dates:
30.7. 15–23 (open rehearsal)
31.7. 15–23
1.8. 15–23
2.8. 12–20
Free entrance!
Workshops:
As part of Boys Just Want to Have Fun ilDance’s artistic director Israel Aloni will conduct two workshops (for non-professionals and for professionals) in Forum Box for those who are particularly interested in the physicality and behaviour of masculinity and manhood. The participants are required to be aged 18 and up and they should be identify as male (including trans, queer, and other masculine identities). The worshop language is English. The workshops are free of charge.
More info and enrollment:
Sat 19 July 17–19: workshop for self-identifying male people with no extensive experience in physical work and/or performing, more info here.
Sat 26 July 14–17: workshop self-identifying male people with previous experience in physical work and/or performing, more info here.
Photo: Nata Korenovskaia.
Mediabox