DECENTRER
“Décentrer” offers an encounter between the choreographer and dancer, François Chaignaud, one of the most inventive of the current time, and Lalla Kowska Régnier, an emblematic figure of the trans scene.
Their proximity and their dialogue illustrates the way the mobile forces of aesthetic action, in particular of performance, have an impact on social forms of affective and social commitment, at the crossroads of existence.
BIOGRAPHIES
François Chaignaud
Having graduated from the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Danse de Paris in 2003, François Chaignaud’s artistic work impresses through its breadth and relevance. From the precursors of choreographic modernity to contemporary avant-gardes, he crosses, reads and re-reads the techniques and symbols from classical ballet to urban and non-scenic dance, including sacred arts. Alone, he created the performances from Aussi Bien Que Ton Cœur Ouvre Moi Les Genoux (Just as well as your heart, open your knees for me) (2008) and Думи мої (2013), and developed an intense set of collaborations with the drag queen Rumi Missabu des Cockettes, the cabaret artist Jérôme Marin (Sous l’ombrelle (under the parasol), 2011), the artist Marie Caroline Hominal (Duchesses, 2009), the designers Romain Brau and Charlie Le Mindu, the artist Théo Mercier (Radio Vinci Park, 2016), the photographer Donatien Veismann and the video artist César Vayssié (The Sweetest Choice, 2015), the musician Nosfell (Icônes, 2016) or the artist Brice Dellsperger (2017).
With Cecilia Bengolea, within the framework of the company Vlovajob Pru, he created Pâquerette (Daisy) (2005-2008), Sylphides (2009), Castor and Pollux (2010), Danses Libres (Free Dances) (based on forgotten choreographies by François Malkovsky, 2010), (M)IMOSA (co-written by Trajal Harrell and Marlene Monteiro Freitas, 2011), Altered natives’ Say Yes To Another Excess – TWERK (2012), Dub Love (2013) and DFS (2016). The Centre National de La Danse in Pantin is currently showing a retrospective of their work. Their creations have been presented in multiples linked to dance and contemporary art in France and abroad. François Chaignaud is also a historian and has published with PUR L’Affaire Berger-Levrault: le féminisme à l’épreuve (1898-1905) (The Berger-Levrault affair: feminism put to the test, 1898-1905)
Lalla Kowska Régnier
Lalla Kowska Régnier was an activist in the fight against aids at the beginning of the 1990s. She then collaborated with industrial entertainment companies in the early 2000s. After being made redundant from Canal +, she began her transformation. She could be found in two or three bars in the centre of Paris for a while. For about ten years, the political, social and artistic motivations which run through her transsexual and deracialized body have occasionally pushed her to write – far from the academic or militant fields. With Jihan Ferjani, she is notably the author of Manifeste Trans’: Notre corps nous appartient (Trans’ Manifesto: our bodies belong to us) in “Nouvelles questions feministes”, 2008. She contributes to the magazine “Terrain vague”.