VOLTIGEURS - For Swedish Youth


A performative ritualism, installation and live drawing in collaboration with John Cussans, performed at Weld, Stockholm, Sweden 2014. 

Photographer Anna Drvnik >>
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The art workings was created in collaboration with artist and writer, John Cussans (UK), for the occasion of a group exhibition at The IMT Gallery in London, UK, 2014.

The workings consist in an exorcising of composite tropes from within our life experiences, methods and references in our poetic-/artistic-, spiritual- and academic works. Tropes such as certain notions of ritual aliances central to the cultural geographies of the transatlantic trade routes, methods of musicality, and other sensous regimes and modalities, alongside cognitive concepts probing current notions of bio- and necropolitics. 

The workings compose a staged affective work out as part of a series of collaborative art events kalibrating geopolitical tensions through ecstatic ritual choreographies. 

The wokings offered a temporary relief as a curse and antidote to the ongoing increasing bigoted, neo-conservative-, nationalistic-, rasist-, and or fascist- (anti-)cultural revival (left, as well as right), in the face of a new enlightment.  

For the IMT exhibition, a photo collage of performance imagery was created and produced as a large scale c-print depicting the ritual drawing of a co-authored channeled sigil/diagram/choreogram. The sigil had been drawn on black floor with Johnssons Baby  Powder and amphetamines for a friction-less dance session  Norther Soul style. 

The session was staged in a derelict bunker in central Stokholm to the tunes of  the legendary recording of the song Intezone by the Brittish band Warzaw, soon to be renamed Joy Division. The song is amongst other things a reference to the writer William S. Burroughs seminal book Naked Lunch, which originally was to be named Interzone (which is his name for a liminal, psychogeographical, intergalactic, transdimensional zone, surfacing throughout his writing. The name is a internalised and personalised verison of the ‘Internationa Zone’ as Tangier in Morrocco was called by expats in  the 50s). 

The song Intezone is built on a guitar riff and structure from the then popular Northen Soul hit ‘Keep on Keeepin on’ by American soul singer and artist Nolan Porter. Warsaws version was produced by the Northern Soul veteran Tony WIlson (Factory Records). Allegedly, when the song was first recorded by Warzaw, Ian Curtis was challenged to approached the song like James Brown would, whereupon he got possessed and screamed his soul more like a wounded animal (as can be heard in the beginning of the song).

A certain relation to ancestral worship, possession, and the name Warzaw itself is reflected on within the lyrics of the song Interzone, and further later on in the history of the band, thoughout various interviews, where they describe how thoughts and sentiment regarding fascism of the era is channeled throughout the creations of the band (Warzaw/Joy Division).



VOLTIGEURS - Veve for Swedish Youth, C-Print, 2014.




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Peyre & Cussans found eachother in the 90s through a common destitude facing the deeper cultural implications of Nothern Soul, Post Punk and horror movies, tying up with the revolutionary unconscious beyond western philosophy, lost animisms, the Haitian cultural heritage and other transatlantic cultural geographies.

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Voltigeur/Voltige/Voulters is the  arthistorical/archeological name for devotional acrobatic dancers often depicted in rock carvings, on classical amphora, and also the martial term for athletic cavalleists. The name is a direct reference to Vodou practicioners refered to as being ridden by the gods when in spirit possession. 

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https://johncussans.com/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oEFcxA-dV5w
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IBE-hdg9a-o

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warsaw_(album)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warsaw_(song)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_soul
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equestrian_vaulting
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veve
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INTERZONE (Lyrics courtesy of Ian Curtis & Warzaw/Joy Division) :

[Verse 1]
I walked through the city limits
Attracted by some force within it
Around a corner where a prophet lay
A wire fence where the children played

[Chorus]
And I was looking for a friend of mine
Yeah, looking for a friend of mine

[Verse 2]
The cars screeched hear the sound on dust
Metallic blue turned red with rust
Stood apart all forgotten youth
Turned on to a knife edged view

[Chorus]
And I was looking for a friend of mine
Yeah, looking for a friend of mine

[Break]
Down the dark streets, the houses looked the same
And I walked round and round
Nail me to a train
Had to get away
Trying to find a way to get out!

[Verse 3]
Four twelve windows, ten in a row
The lights shine - an unearthly glow
No place to stop, no place to go
I guess they died some time ago

[Chorus]
And I was looking for some friends of mine
(And I had no time to waste)
Yeah, looking for some friends of mine


KEEP ON KEEPING ON (Lyrics cortesy of Nolan Porter):

Pick out your beret  [?]
Your  baby's been out [?]
Work  got you hurting [?]
People dying on the ground [?]

You gotta keep on keeping on
No  matter how hard it is
You  gotta keep on keeping on
No matter how rough it gets
You  gotta keep on keeping on
Not matter how hard it is
You gotta keep on keeping on
No matter how rough it gets

Hey 
Keep on
Hey
Keep on

Keep on people, oh
Keep on
I say now oh, oh, it's a new day
Keep on
Keep strong

When the going gets kinda rough yeah
Oh get on up good stuff
Don't let it get you down
I say now get on up and smile a while
You gotta keep on keeping on
You gotta keep on keeping on
You gotta keep on keeping on

Keep on baby
Whoa whoa whoa
Keep on
Whoa whoa
It's a new day
Hold your head up high

You gotta keep on keeping on
You gotta keep on keeping on
No matter how hard it is
You gotta keep on keeping on
No matter how rough it is
You gotta keep on keep on keep on
You gotta keep on keep on keep on
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