Parade

“Parade” is the cinematographic transposition of choreographer Adam Linder’s reinterpretation of the famous ballet Jean Cocteau conceived for Sergei Dialighev’s Ballets Russes in 1917, for which Picasso designed costumes and Erik Satie wrote a musical score. The action refers to an advertising “parade” staged by three actors in front of the theater where, to earn a living, they have to continually promote themselves in order to convince passersby to enter and see their show. Shahryar Nashat’s adaptation, derived from these sources, becomes a new text, and the three dancers are caught by a highly mobile camera and a precise authorial point-of-view which reflects their virtuosity. Through framing, editing and sound, Nashat transforms a choreographic performance into an original piece of cinema in which he inserts elements of his own artistic work: polygonal forms colored green to symbolize the totemic power of art. The film, which explores–not without humor–the postures of bodies in relation to the evanescent presence of these objects, debuted at the Berlin Biennale this year and is currently part of a one-man show by the artist at the Palais de Tokyo.