20:30 doors
21:00 concert

Between 2020 and 2022, Gérald Kurdian collaborated with an AI to compose the musical score of a piece called X! (Un opera fantastique). In that solo performance, they unfold in a series of chants, their intimate yet political journey through traumatic memory by using fabulative storytelling and documentary practices (film, photography and interviews) to map some of the power structures surrounding sexual abuse. If the visuals of the show borrow to heroic fantasy, video games and queer fanzines culture, its songs are open doors to the affective and reparative dimensions of its libretto. They are abstract spaces to recover and rest, to face and disrupt, to grieve and transform. 

For In Harm’s Way Gérald proposes “13 songs for the unspeakable”, a stripped down concert to re-experience this repertoire and augment it with some of the further musical material that came up during their research.

Trigger warning: references to sexual violence and images containing nudity.

Gérald Kurdian aka GÆRALD (they/them) is a musician, performer and DJ based in Brussels and Paris. They studied visual arts at the ENSAPC before entering the contemporary dance program Ex.e.r.ce 07 under the direction of Mathilde Monnier and Xavier Le Roy. Their oblique concerts, joining electronic music, performance art and documentary practices are since then regularly presented in Europe and abroad (Usine C - Montréal, Crossing the Line - New York, Steirischer Herbst - Graz, Centre Pompidou - Metz, Fondation Cartier, etc). In 2018, they initiated HOT BODIES OF THE FUTURE!, a series of musical and performative research projects (performances, queer-feminist choir workshops, inclusive parties, and more) around sexual revolutions. They are currently one of the artist-researchers of the ESACM’s research cooperative.

www.geraldkurdian.com
www.geraldxoxoxo.org
www.wearehotbodiesofthefuture.org

Concept, composition and performance: Gérald Kurdian
Sound Technique: Justine Herbert
Production: Fanny Virelizier
Administration: Axelle Faillères / Hot Bodies of the Future
Photo credit: Ben Pii