Dryads of Cosquer | August 30 – November 5, 2024 | Marseille

Performance ME TWO / WE, THE CLIQUE by Low Air
November 5, 2024, 6:30 pm
Venue: Frac Sud – Cité de l’art contemporain

Curated by Justė Kostikovaitė and Merilin Talumaa

Roots to Routes curators Merilin Talumaa and Justė Kostikovaitė are delighted to present Dryads of Cosquer, a tripartite project featured in the Lithuanian Season in France 2024. The programme includes an exhibition and artist residency, a screening followed by a discussion, and a performance. It highlights works by Baltic and international contemporary artists influenced by the heritage of Marija Gimbutas.

After the Paris Olympics 2024 it is imperative to reflect on how sports, beyond their competitive nature, can foster renewal. This reflection resonates with Marija Gimbutas’s ideas on regeneration and her interpretation of female body symbolism in ancient art. Gimbutas argued that the female body in late Neolithic drawings should be seen as “philosophical, rather than sexual or pornographic.” We aim to extend Gimbutas’ proposal to all bodies that are inadvertently sexualized on screen while competing.

The dance performance ME TWO / WE, THE CLIQUE by Low Air Vilnius City Dance Theatre embodies an attempt to resolve the tension between demonstrating empowering movements and the necessity to shed objectification and competitiveness. This performance conjures a space for collective action and conflict resolution. Echoing Gimbutas’s ideas of harmony and regeneration, it explores identity through the lens of hip-hop dance—a social and ritualistic practice—and breaking, the newest Olympic sport, proposing a new empowered identity through ritualistic athletic practice.

Aligned with the Global Neighborhood concept emphasising unity, mobility, empathy, and coexistence in the increasingly globalised yet divided world, central to the Lithuanian Season in France, the performance delves into the heritage of hip-hop. It envisions a competitive yet empathetic world without borders, using cultural links to discuss common rituals and the migration of art and cultural forms.

We are grateful to Lithuanian Council for Culture, Vilnius City Municipality and Baltic Culture Fund for funding the production and dissemination of the performance.