ephemeropteræ 2012/04 – Guillaume Désanges & Frédéric Cherboeuf | TASHWEESH

Aiming at dividing the history of performance in 10 gestures, Guillaume Désanges & Frédéric Cherboeuf start off the performance evening, before TASHWEESH (Basel Abbas, Ruanne Abou-Rahme, Boikutt) set in with their exploration of the collision between sound and video, field recordings, archive material, vocals, breaks and soundscapes. 
 

GUILLAUME DÉSANGES & FRÉDÉRIC CHERBOEUF

HISTORY OF PERFORMANCE IN 20 MINUTES 

“Let’s attempt a history of the body in art as a history of silence as opposed to discourse about art. Let’s simply show how the history—of art—has, at a certain moment—and for some people—engendered gestures and not objects. And certainly not discourse… Looked at this way, in a purely formal fashion, the history of performance, or of body art, is not then a history of the representation of the body but exclusively a history of gesture. Barely sketched, already expired.” (Guillaume Désanges)

Guillaume Désanges (born in 1971, lives in Paris) is a curator and art critic, cofounder of Work Method, a Paris based agency for artistic projects. Member of the editorial board of Trouble Magazine, he collaborates with the magazines Exit Express and Exit Book (Madrid). He coordinated the artistic projects of Laboratoires d'Aubervilliers between 2001 and 2007, and worked with Thomas Hirschhorn (the 24h Foucault Project, and Musée Précaire Albinet). He developed several performed conference projects like A History of Performance in 20 Minutes (Centre Pompidou, Paris / De Appel, Amsterdam / MacVal, Paris / U-Turn, Copenhagen, etc.) or Vox Artisti – His Master’s Voice (Halles de Schaerbeek, Brussels / Betonsalon, Paris). 
 

Tashweesh is a sound and image performance group that brings together installation based artists Basel Abbas and Ruanne Abou-Rahme with musician and performer Boikutt, combining their different practices and interests in a joint performance. The result is an exploration of the collision between sound and video, field recordings, archive material, vocals, breaks and soundscapes. The trio explores the relation between installation and performance practice, playing with the distinction between various music, sound and image practices to produce a dynamic and singular performance experience. Previous performances include De Balie (Amsterdam), Beirut Art Centre (Beirut), CCA (Glasgow), Danish Film Institute (Copenhagen), Images Festival (Copenhagen) & Re:View (Katowice), South Bank Centre (London), The Tent Gallery (Edinburgh).

Basel Abbas and Ruanne Abou-Rahme (born 1983) work together across a range of sound, image, installation and performance practices. Their work explores issues connected with spatial politics and subjectivity, place and narrative, and spatio-termporal resonances in the relation between the actual, imagined and remembered. Often taking on the form of interdisciplinary installations and live performances, their practice increasingly examines the immersive, experiential possibilities of sound, image and environment. They have exhibited and performed internationally and most recently founded the sound and image performance collective Tashweesh.
Recent exhibitions include, The Zone at the 5th Jerusalem Show and solo show at the NAE (Nottingham, 2011), Re:View Videonale (Katowice, 2011), House 44 Art Dubai (2011), Future Movements – Jerusalem at the Liverpool Biennial (2010), Freies Museum Berlin (2010), 23es instants video in Marseilles and Oran (2010), Bluecoat Art Centre (Liverpool 2010), Ny Lyd Images Festival (Copenhagen 2010), HomeWorks 5 at Ashkal Alwan (Beirut 2010), Delfina Foundation (London 2009), and Palestine co/Venice at the 53rd Venice Biennale (2009). 

Boikutt is a musician and MC based in Ramallah, Palestine. Creating sounds using sampled material, field recordings, and electronic devices, the results range between hip-hop, downtempo, ambient, glitch, and experimental. He has composed and produced music for artists such as Kronos Quartet, Bukue One, Spiritchild, Tamer Abu-Ghazaleh, Bleubird and others, and has appeared as an MC on albums for artists such as Slovo, Heliodrome, Bonnot, and Lethal Skillz. Founder and former member of the Ramallah Underground Collective (2002–09) which has toured across the Arab World, Europe and Australia. Boikutt is also founder and member of audio-visual group Tashweesh, with whom he is currently touring. As a solo artist, he has performed in Beirut, Cairo, Manila, Copenhagen, London, Hamburg, Amman, Dubai, Bethlehem and others. Boikutt has also produced and exhibited a few sound installations, composed several film scores for local and international films, has most recently composed original scores for two dance theater performances, and is now working on different collaborative and solo projects.