JULIEN CREUZET
After the successful world-premiere as part of Performa 2023 in New York (November 2023) and European premiere in Amsterdam at the Dutch National Opera’s Studio Boekman, presented by Hartwig Art Foundation (June 2024), a new adaptation of Algorithm ocean true blood moves comes to Dakar. It has been specially produced for the outdoor space in front of the Ancien Palais de Justice, the DAK'ART Biennale of Contemporary African Art 2024’s main location.
The performance is a collaboration with Creuzet’s longtime partner, Brazilian choreographer Ana Pi, whose work delves into themes of migration, memory, belonging, and the poetry of everyday gestures. Pi directs a group of young dancers from the Alvin Ailey School in New York, crafting a tapestry of movement inspired by diverse sources: the squatting positions of Sudanese clerics during ceremonies, the iconic “duck walk” of American teens in supermarket aisles, and the syncopated "dutty wine" of dancehall. These energetic gestures interweave into a powerful choreography that transcends borders, evoking the vast geography of the Black Atlantic.
Algorithm ocean true blood moves, Creuzet’s first-large-scale performance, continues the artist’s explorations into the history of trade, displacement, and diaspora. In collaboration with Pi, Creuzet draws on a collection of movements by online content creators of African descent. The movements, gathered by the artist from social media over the years, unveil unexpected, yet intimate connections between steps that exist in different times and geographies across the Black Atlantic. From New York to Amsterdam to Dakar, the performance at DAK'ART 2024 completes a significant full-circle journey for Creuzet, symbolically reversing the brutal history of the transatlantic slave trade through a new triangulation of life and vitality. Bridging geographical, political and temporal separations, the performance translates movement into a living encounter of history.
Algorithm ocean true blood moves was co-commissioned by Performa and the Hartwig Art Foundation, premiering at Performa Biennial 2023 in New York. In June 2024, it was presented by the Hartwig Foundation at the Dutch National Opera in Amsterdam to a sold-out audience.
Specially produced for the outdoor space in front of the Ancien Palais de Justice on the closing day of DAK'ART.