Choreographer Faustin Linyekula Returns to NYC, 9/17 & 18

The Museum of African Art and the French Institute Alliance Française (FIAF), New York's premiere French cultural center, present the Congo-based director, choreographer and performer Faustin Linyekula as part of the 2012 Crossing the Line festival. Known for creating intricate and powerful performance works that reflect the political, social and cultural history as well as the present-day struggles of his home country, Linyekula returns to New York following his sold-out, critically acclaimed performances of more more more… future, which was present at The Kitchen as part of the 2011 Crossing the Line festival. 

 

On Monday, September 17 at 8pm, Linyekula and renowned stage director Peter Sellars will discuss the power of the arts as an agent for social and political change in the lecture/performance Dialogue. The following night, September 18 at 8pm, Linyekula debuts the New York premiere of Le Cargo, his first solo work. The performance examines his personal story within the context of his native Congo's rich and tumultuous history.

 

Additional information including venue details and ticket prices can be found below. Please visit fiaf.org/ctl or call 212.355.6160 for more information.

 

Faustin Linyekula & Peter Sellars 

Co-presented with the Museum for African Art, Monday, September 17 at 8pm

FIAF, Florence Gould Hall, 55 East 59th Street (between Park and Madison Avenue)

Advance $20, Day-of $25, FIAF Members $15, Student Rush $10

 

The director and choreographer Faustin Linyekula and the director Peter Sellars, who are friends as well as collaborators, come together on the first anniversary of Occupy Wall Street to speak about each other's work and the power of the arts as an agent for social and political change. 

 

Through his innovative interpretations of classic works from Mozart to Sophocles, Peter Sellars has reshaped the way artists and audiences view performance. Faustin Linyekula has gained critical acclaim worldwide for his provocative work addressing the legacy of war and atrocities in his native Democratic Republic of the Congo where he remains a singular voice in contemporary performance. 

 

Faustin Linyekula

Co-presented with the Museum for African Art, Tuesday, September 18 at 8pm

FIAF, Florence Gould Hall, 55 East 59th Street (between Park and Madison Avenue)

Advance $20, Day-of $25, FIAF Members $15, Student Rush $10

 

In this raw and intimate performance, Linyekula explores his story within the context of his native Congo's rich and tumultuous history. Infused with potent music, and his powerful personal narrative, Linyekula beautifully investigates his relationship with dance, the physical language through which he has told his country's stories for a decade, as he searches for traces of this brutal history on his body.  

 

 

Dancer and choreographer, Faustin Linyekula lives in Kisangani, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, former Zaire, former Belgian Congo, and former independent state of Congo. In his work, he regularly addresses the legacy of decades of war, terror, fear, and the continued efforts of the nation to rebuild itself, physically, psychologically, and materially. In 2001, he created Studios Kabako in Kinshasa, a space dedicated to dance and theatre. In 2006, Studios Kabako moved to Kisangani and extended to other artistic fields including music, film, and video. It supports training programs, research, and the production and touring of new work by young Congolese artists. With Vienna-based architect Bärbel Müller, Linyekula is working on a series of three cultural centers meant to stimulate the circulation of ideas and creativity through the urban body. The residency / lab center should open in 2015. Among his recent creations aremore more more... future (2009) (presented as part of Crossing the Line 2011), his first solo work Le Cargo (2011), (presented as part ofCrossing the Line 2012), and La création du monde (1923-2012), a collaboration with the Ballet de Lorraine in Nancy (France). He is the recipient of the Principal Award of the Prince Claus Fund for Culture and Development and is associate artist to the KVS Theater, Brussels.

Opera, theater, and festival director Peter Sellars is one of the most innovative and powerful forces in the performing arts in America and abroad. A visionary artist, Sellars is known for groundbreaking interpretations of classic works. Recent Sellars projects have included a concert staging of Bach's Saint Matthew Passion with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, stagings of Nixon in China for the Metropolitan Opera and George Crumb's The Winds of Destiny for the Ojai Music Festival and Cal Performances, and new productions of Handel'sHercules in Chicago, Vivaldi's Griselda in Santa Fe, and a double bill of Tchaikovsky's IOLANTA and Stravinsky's PERSEPHONE in Madrid. Desdemona, a collaboration with novelist Toni Morrison and Malian composer and singer Rokia Traore, was performed in Vienna, Brussels, Paris, Berkeley, New York, and Berlin.

Sellars has led several major arts festivals. In 2006 he was Artistic Director of New Crowned Hope, a festival in Vienna for which he invited International Artists, including Faustin Linyekula, from diverse cultural backgrounds to create new work in the fields of music, theater, dance, film, the visual arts, and architecture for the city's celebration of the 250th anniversary of Mozart's birth.

Sellars is a professor in the Department of World Arts and Cultures at UCLA and Resident Curator of the Telluride Film Festival. He is the recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship, the Erasmus Prize, The Sundance Institute Risk-Takers Award, and the Gish Prize, and is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

 

Crossing the Line is the French Institute Alliance Française (FIAF)'s annual fall festival presenting interdisciplinary works and performances created by artists from around the world in New York. The festival provides opportunities for New Yorkers to explore the dialogue between artist and participant, examine how artists help re-imagine the world, and engage in the vital role artists play as critical thinkers and catalysts for social evolution. Curated by Lili Chopra, Artistic Director of FIAF, Simon Dove, Director of the Herberger Institute School of Dance at Arizona State University, and Gideon Lester, Director of Theater Programs at Bard College, Crossing the Lineis initiated and produced by FIAF in partnership with leading cultural institutions and takes place this year from September 14–October 14, 2012.

 

Inaugurated in 2007, Crossing the Line has enjoyed increasingly strong audience response from diverse segments of the New York City area, as well as critical acclaim. The festival was voted "Best of 2009" and "Best of 2010" by Time Out New York, The New York Times, and the Wall Street Journal. The New York Times has said, "The French Institute Alliance Française's annual Crossing the Line has carved out a particular identity as an invigorating, unpredictable, occasionally provocative mix of genres and disciplines…It's the artistic equivalent of a splash of water on the face." 

 

 

FIAF's mission is to create and offer New Yorkers innovative and unique programs in education and the arts that explore the evolving diversity and richness of French cultures. FIAF seeks to generate new ideas and promote cross cultural dialogue through partnerships and new platforms of expression. www.fiaf.org 

 

 

The Museum for African Art is dedicated to increasing public understanding and appreciation of the arts and cultures of Africa and the African Diaspora. Founded in 1984, the Museum is internationally acknowledged as a preeminent organizer of exhibitions and publications related to historical and contemporary African art, with programs that are as diverse as the continent itself. Throughout the Museum's history it has been heralded as a leader in the field, pioneering the way African art is presented and interpreted. Find out about upcoming programs and exhibitions at www.africanart.org.

 

 

FIAF would like to thank the following for their generous support of Crossing the Line 2012:  

 

Nespresso, Presenting Sponsor of Crossing the Line 2012

 

American Airlines, the Official Airline of FIAF; 972, the Cultural Services of the French Embassy; Institut français; Florence Gould Foundation; The French-American Fund for Contemporary Theater, a Program of FACE; Fondation d'entreprise Hermès; New York State Council on the Arts; New York City Department of Cultural Affairs; The Enoch Foundation; The Peter Jay Sharp Foundation; Interaudi Bank; The Museum for African Art; Institut français / Paris / Afrique en créations; Société des Auteurs et Compositeurs Dramatiques; NRW Kultursekretariat Wuppertal; Netherlands Cultural Services; The Netherland-America Foundation; FUSED  (French-US Exchange in Dance) Program; The Hemispheric Institute; APAP Cultural Exchange Fund; the Consulate General of France in Quebec; Anonymous; and Robert de Rothschild.

 

Special thanks to Arizona State University.