Performance — 12, 13, Jul 14, 2019

Julidans and Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam jointly present "Us Swerve," a dance performance choreographed by Alex Baczynski-Jenkins.

Location
Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, Entrance Hall
Time
Jul 12, 2019, 7 pm until 9 pm
Jul 13, 2019, 2 pm until 4 pm
Jul 14, 2019, 2 pm until 4 pm
Main language
English
Admission
Free entrance, reservation is not necessary

In Alex Baczynski-Jenkins’s Us Swerve (2014), performers on rollerblades orbit one another while reciting, remixing, and reformulating fragments of poetry that meditate on the subject of desire. This polyphonic choreographic “score” is perpetually altered by the performers’ movements, attitudes, and affects. As the performers circulate, they begin to channel a queer archive of verses and inflections, including lines from writers such as Essex Hemphill, Eileen Myles, and Langston Hughes. These articulations of desire and the sensuality of repetition both set the rollerbladers in motion and create a tableau for them to move through.

  • Alex Baczynski-Jenkins, Us Swerve (2014). Performance documentation: Palais de Tokyo, Paris, 2017. Photo: Atelier Diptik
    Alex Baczynski-Jenkins, Us Swerve (2014). Performance documentation: Palais de Tokyo, Paris, 2017. Photo: Atelier Diptik
  • Alex Baczynski-Jenkins, Us Swerve (2014). Performance documentation: Swiss Institute, New York, 2016. Photo: Daniel Pérez
    Alex Baczynski-Jenkins, Us Swerve (2014). Performance documentation: Swiss Institute, New York, 2016. Photo: Daniel Pérez
  • Alex Baczynski-Jenkins, Us Swerve (2014). Performance documentation: Swiss Institute, New York, 2016. Photo: Daniel Pérez
    Alex Baczynski-Jenkins, Us Swerve (2014). Performance documentation: Swiss Institute, New York, 2016. Photo: Daniel Pérez
  • Alex Baczynski-Jenkins, Us Swerve (2014). Performance documentation: Swiss Institute, New York, 2016. Photo: Daniel Pérez
    Alex Baczynski-Jenkins, Us Swerve (2014). Performance documentation: Swiss Institute, New York, 2016. Photo: Daniel Pérez

MORE ABOUT THE ARTIST

Alex Baczynski-Jenkins (1987, London) lives and works in Warsaw and London. Previous and forthcoming solo exhibitions include: Kunsthalle Basel, Switzerland (Sep-Oct, 2019); Foksal Gallery Foundation, Warsaw (2018); and Chisenhale Gallery, London (2017). Baczynski-Jenkins has also presented work at: Migros Museum of Contemporary Art, Zurich (2018); Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2017); Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw (2017); Swiss Institute Contemporary Art, New York (2016); Muzeum Sztuki, Łódź (2016); and Basel Liste (2014). He is the co-founder of the feminist and queer project space Kem in Warsaw. Kem have recently realized projects at the Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw (Kem Care, 2017) and is currently on a one-year residency at the Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art (Three Springs, 2018-2019). Baczynski-Jenkins was a fellow at the Home Workspace Program, Beirut between 2012-2013. In 2018, he was the recipient of the Arts Foundation Award and the Frieze Artist Award.

CREDITS

Co-produced by Julidans and the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam in 2019. Originally commissioned and produced by Basel Liste in 2014.

Performers: Zachariah Fletcher, Joseph Funnell, Carlos Maria Romero and Jake Sherwood.

The presentation of Baczynski-Jenkins’s Us Swerve is part of an ongoing collaboration between Julidans and the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. In 2017, the two organizations presented choreographer Ligia Lewis’s minor matter (2016).