Join Threads Dance Project at the Alliance Française on June 10 at 6:00pm for a performance of “Objet de Desir Inaccessible”!
$15 Members, $20 non-members. Purchase at https://bit.ly/tdpaf06.
Originally choreographed in 2019 as a site-specific work at the Minneapolis Institute of Art (Mia) Objet de Désir Inaccessible (Unattainable Object of Desire) features Charles’ interpretation of the renowned painting Portrait of Madeleine (formerly known as Portrait of a Negress) and utilizes research about the artist (Marie-Guillemine Benoist), her subject, and their relationship to explore racism, feminism, identity and concepts of beauty.
This work transports us through time to juxtapose these ideas, both in the 1800’s when the painting was created and today. The audience follows the dancers from the classical portrait galleries through to contemporary art galleries. This intimate performance reveals the “in-between” – a place these women existed both then and now – seeking to find resolution on questions of identity and difference.
“I created this dance after seeing the Portrait of Madeleine in the Louvre. I was walking through the museum, and I kept seeing paintings of white male persons, and suddenly there was this portrait of a black woman. I felt proud to see this in the Louvre, and then I started becoming curious because of the way she is posed and the look on her face; it haunted me.” -Karen Charles
This trio explores the intersectionality of feminism and race via a depiction of Marie Benoist and her subject, Madeleine, in both the past and present. Did they have an intimate relationship? Did Madeleine resent posing for the portrait? What prompted Benoist to create a portrait of a Black woman at a time when this was not the norm? What would the relationship be like between these two women today? The dance takes the audience on a journey from the past to the present extrapolating ideas about race and sex through the lives of these two women.
Choreographer: Karen Charles
Dancers: Nieya Amezquita, Karen Christ Aalgaard, Sara Karimi