Lenio Kaklea

For four years, and in six European towns, Lenio Kaklea has been conducting an investigation into the limitations of documentaries and the poetic evocation of vernacular practices. In this way, L’Encyclopédie pratique [The Practical Encyclopaedia] consists of a variety of different pieces: choreographies, installations, films and books. The solo Ballad, a prize-winner at the Triennale di Milano and the Fondation Hermès, is the most recent creation to be part of this series. From the Breton village of Guissény to Athens, via Aubervilliers or Nyon, Lenio Kaklea has been refining her protocols for exchanges and observation, while shifting the limits of choreography. The fractioned and fictionalised portraits of these various towns open up a far broader reflexion about the networks in which these multiple practices are interwoven. Ballad extends this route by drawing directly on the formative experiences of choreography: how are we choreographed by society, its institutions, our beliefs, our fantasies and our loves? Historical dances from the early 20th century are invoked so as to question the transformative power of utopias.