BUFFARD, Alain; DE CHAILLÉ, Fanny (ed.); SEBILLOTTE, Laurent (ed.); ZOONENS, Cécile (ed.)
Alain Buffard. Good Boy
Ce livre-somme invite à découvrir et questionner l'œuvre multiple du chorégraphe Alain Buffard, héritier des grandes figures de la danse des années 1980, qui participa au renouvellement de la scène française en croisant sa propre histoire et ses mythologies personnelles avec nombre des problématiques de son temps, de la question du sida à celle du post-colonialisme. L’ouvrage, qui rassemble à la fois de riches témoignages, une large iconographie et des documents d'archives inédits, éclaire le parcours, les créations et la pensée d'un artiste qui, par sa radicalité et la fécondité de ses interrogations, a créé une œuvre complexe, toujours vivante et riche de questions non résolues, posées au monde et donc à nous-mêmes.
There are so many reasons today to examine the significance of the work created by Alain Buffard. A dancer and successor of the major choreographic figures of the 1980s, Buffard is one of those who have experienced the onset of AIDS as a key event. Battling disease, his story and personal mythologies of his own entwined throughout his pieces, exhibitions and films, he has delved into a number of issues particular to his time. Through both a radical nature and some fruitful questioning, his works, from Good Boy to Baron Samedi, have contributed to the revival of the French scene. This kaleidoscopic book brings together rich testimonies, a large iconography and many unpublished archive documents. It sheds light on the journey, the work and the thought of a complex artist, both assertive and secret, without reducing his many faces. We discover Buffard bouncing about, a young boy still, and later, a man with invisible scars. Here, he is seen playing with neon, in the likes of Bruce Nauman, or, captured naked, searching for his dance amongst the Sea Ranch sequoias. Elsewhere, entirely in words, he unveils a broad questionnaire used as support to better exist on Earth or to identify what one is able to give, as an artist and a performer, to the piece to come. Here, he is conversing, out loud or in silence, with his partner Alain Ménil, the researcher Laurence Louppe or the dancer-choreographer Anna Halprin. There, some sharp reflections on how to learn and how to emancipate. And then, it is the absent Buffard whose place is taken, post mortem, in order to pass on his work. [publisher's note]
Textes de / Texts by Alain Buffard, Fanny de Chaillé, Marc Domage & Jean Louis Chapuis, Matthieu Doze, Lou Forster, François Frimat, Élisabeth Lebovici, Xavier Le Roy, Alain Ménil, Lorrina Niclas, Mélanie Papin, Anne Pellus, Frédéric Pouillaude, Enora Rivière, Laurent Sebillotte, Noémie Solomon, Cécile Zoonens.
Bilingue français / English.
Published by Les Presses du Réel, 2020
Design by Casier / Fieuws
Monographs / Performance
