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Dreams Come True, 2003, 23 Minuten
Event
Yan Duyvendak - performance programme 3Three performances by Yan Duyvendak in the context of his retrospective exhibition "Encore".
Keep it Fun For Yourself, 1995
“Art isn’t easy!
Overnight you’re a star
You’re the right combination
Then your star’s at an end
You’re suddenly last year’s sensation”
In singing a capella a selection of songs on the subject of art, Yan Duyvendak raises the question of the role of the artist in today’s world (doing so with an irony typical of that role). Respecting the tempos of the songs as though the instrumentation were present, playing with the bittersweetness of nostalgia, robbing the interpretation of all artifice, he carries off the tour de force of stripping bare our vision by including himself in the reflection: “You wanted to be an artist so you could see yourself, beautiful, on the big screen and in color”, he joyfully sings.
Coproduction: Centre pour l’Image Contemporaine (sgg*) saint-gervais genève
Une Soirée Pour Nous, 2003
“Une soirée pour nous” mixes an international “clicking” with the concert which Celine Dion gave in Paris and dedicated to Rene, her husband and manager who was suffering from cancer. To share with the spectators in the Stade de France the intimacy of her relationship with Rene, Celine spoke directly to him, while his image was broadcast in real time, “thanks to a miracle of science”, on giant screens. Yan Duyvendak becomes Celine Dion, object of revulsion and fascination, able to make her audiences cry for the worst. The emotions on which she plays are brutally interrupted by the most banal images TV-land has to offer – weather reports, advertisements – and this sudden deflation provokes painful reflections on our tendency to get swept up in emotions.
Direction: Imanol Atorrasagasti
Coproduction: Centre pour l’Image Contemporaine (sgg*) saint-gervais genève
Dreams Come True, 2003
“If I proposed a game show which put ten people and nine parachutes on an airplane about to crash, I would find contestants” says John de Mol, apostle of so-called “reality shows” and creator of numerous programs in this genre.
Here they are – the pathetic and desperate journies of those who believe that their dreams can come true. In the middle of these illusions – which sometimes become nightmares – Yan Duyvendak is comically buffeted about, trying conscientiously to internalize the random lessons of those who want to teach him how to become a star. Departing from the impossible hopes of these postadolescents, Yan Duyvendak – entirely too real for this supposed “telereality”– lays bare the machinery of these dehumanizing competitions.
Direction: Imanol Atorrasagasti
Dramaturgy: Nicole Borgeat
Coproduction: Centre pour l’Image Contemporaine (sgg*) saint-gervais genève; Kunstkredit Basel-Stadt
Watch a documentation of the opening performances on youtube here.