We Dance: They look at you

 

Nicolas Molé’s immersive animated installation IIs vous regardent (They look at you) embodies the forest environment of his ancestral home, Lifou in New Caledonia. Pulsing natural life forms found in this environment are symbols for the forces of nature. They also stand in for complex human emotions and relationships including with those that the living have with an ancestral realm.

Yumi Danis (We Dance) was co-curated for ‘The 8th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art’ (APT8) with Ni-Vanuatu songwriter, musician and author Marcel Meltherorong (Mars Melto), and brought together dancers and musicians from Papua, Papua New Guinea, Fiji, the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and New Caledonia. It was staged as an immersive multimedia installation, animated by contemporary dance and consciously addresses the issues involved in translating and contextualising performance from these regions for a broader audience.

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The installation for APT8 They look at you 2015 is by Kanak artist Nicolas Molé in response to discussions with Meltherorong and 15 dancers from across the region who attended a workshop in Vanuatu in 2014. For APT8 visitors entered through the tangled roots of a banyan tree, into a cleared open space found in many of the region’s villages. The surrounds were animated with Mole’s immersive animated video projections of a forest inhabited by various beings. A large dwelling held 11 videos, presenting the diversity of performance found throughout Melanesia.

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Installation for APT8 They look at you featuring the large dwelling which held videos presenting the diversity of performance found throughout Melanesia.

Watch the Yumi Danis (We Dance) performance

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Nicolas Molé, France/New Caledonia b.1975 / IIs vous regardent (They look at you) 2015, reconfigured 2017 / Mixed media installation / Purchased 2017 with funds from the bequest of Jennifer Taylor through the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art Foundation / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art / © Nicolas Molé

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The Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art (APT) is the Gallery’s flagship exhibition focused on the work of Asia, the Pacific and Australia. APT8 was at the Queensland Art Gallery and Gallery of Modern Art from 21 November 2015 until 10 April 2016

Feature image detail: Nicolas Molé IIs vous regardent (They look at you) 2015, reconfigured 2017

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