INTERMISSIONS: PAUL MAHEKE

PAUL MAHEKE
PAUL MAHEKE, MELIKA NGOMBE KOLONGO (NKISI), & ARIEL EFRAIM ASHBEL, SÈNSA, 2019 PERFORMANCE FOR ASSEMBLE, VOLKSBÜHNE, BERLIN. PHOTO: FRANK SPERLING

Saturday, April 4, 7PM
Renaissance Society
INTERMISSIONS: PAUL MAHEKE

In his performances and installations, Paul Maheke brings movement, dance, and language to bear on questions of history and memory. A French artist of Congolese descent, now living in London, Maheke speculates in his work on what he calls “embodied stories.” Informed by feminist, post-colonial, and queer positions, his performances and installations “consider the body as an archive, a territory with its own cartography, using its physicality as a pathway to information and meaning-making.”

As he develops a work, often the script draws from different authors and leads the way to choreography, further catalyzed by collaboration with other musicians, dancers, or artists. Once the audience becomes another active presence in the room, his works bring into relief different forms of visibility or withdrawal, coexistence, or relations to power. For the Intermissions series, he brings his distinctive approach to the Renaissance Society, while working with the specificity of the architecture and sound in the space.

Curated by Karsten Lund.

Intermissions launched in January 2017 as a new programming series devoted to ephemeral and performative works, staged in the Renaissance Society’s empty gallery in between exhibitions. This recurring platform presents two events every year, supporting a wide variety of live projects.

The series is supported by a gift from Mirja and Ted Haffner. Maheke’s performance is presented with the support of the Cultural Services of the French Embassy in Chicago.