Posse Comitatus
Posse Comitatus is presented in the context of The Real Thing?, an exhibition where diverse attitudes towards performance question the ambiguous terrain of the real, challenging its construction and our mediated experience of it.
Posse Comitatus is a collaboration between Chelsea Knight and Mark Tribe, two artists whose individual work has explored the intersection of performance and politics. Knight and Tribe have been working with a militia group in Upstate New York. The group allowed the artists to film training exercises where they demonstrated various firing positions and formations.
For this new iteration of Posse Comitatus Tribe and Knight have collaborated with choreographer Valerie Oberleithner to develop a performance and video installation that focuses on parallels between militia exercises and the choreographic process, particularly centred on the idea of the rehearsal. This form of pre-performance disciplines the body and is utilized in both dance and military training. The site of contingency exposes a thin line between the fictive battlefield and the real stage, and their inter-changeability.
Chelsea Knight and Mark Tribe in collaboration with Valerie Oberleithner, Emilie Combet, and Lautaro Prado.
Curated by Antonia Alampi and Jason Waite for The Real Thing?, part of «Nouvelles Vagues» at the Palais de Tokyo.
Emilie Combet (France) lives and works in Paris.
Lautaro Prado (Mexico) lives and works in Angers.
Chelsea Knight (USA) lives and works in New York City.
Valerie Oberleithner (Austria) lives and works in Paris.
Mark Tribe (USA) lives and works in New York City.