Disturbing nudes

Conversation on nudes by Gaëlle Bourges and Julie Perrin

The presence of the nude on the choreographic stage or in performance can provoke aesthetic disturbances and displace boundaries: those of the social, moral and sexual order, of jurisdiction, of gender... Crossed by political and philosophical demands, but also engaged in plastic and aesthetic experimentation, the nude performer puts the norms of the art world and contemporary society in crisis. The practices of dancers and performers question, disturb and irritate - whether they put themselves in danger, act through excess or subtraction, explore the trivial materiality of their bodies or the exaggerated simplicity of everyday forms. Yet how do we look at these gestures, and take in what they tell us?