Darius Dolatyari-Dolatdoust. DRESSING + mata!

With DRESSING and mata! presented as a double bill at Bozar, Darius Dolatyari-Dolatdoust’s work resonates with the exhibition Edith Dekyndt X Cristóbal Balenciaga at Bozar. Also to discover at Cloud Seven: Red Room (2024), a film by Darius Dolatyari-Dolatdoust, followed by a conversation with the artist and Paul Briottet, on Saturday 17 October at 4 pm.DRESSING DRESSING is a performance that starts from the act of dressing. Getting dressed is a paradoxical daily gesture: depending on the individual, it aims as much to assimilate into a social group as to distinguish oneself from it. The costume is a support which allows both to merge, even to camouflage oneself in the mass, and to stand out: two ways of presenting oneself to others, which are based on an issue of collective belonging. DRESSING features bodies that use clothing and accessories in order to appear differently, to distinguish themselves from others and from the decor. Clothing becomes a ritual of transformation, allowing the creation of a new identity. The costume is considered as a choreographic score, in its capacity to offer a renewed way of moving, of expressing oneself, of performing. Silhouettes are constructed and deconstructed, revealing before our eyes creatures in constant metamorphosis, to the point of monstrousness. * Please note that *DRESSING* contains nudity​mata! What form would a bullfight take, removed from the reality of killing, defeating gender stereotypes and the codes of ritual violence? In the center of the arena, bathed in the musical atmosphere of Paul Lajus, Grégoire Schaller and Darius Dolatyari-Dolatdoust deliver a critical rereading of this sacrificial parade by exacerbating the elegance of its pageantry. Through the reappropriation of gestures, light clothing and grimaces, the ultimate expressions of an encounter with death, the duo organizes a face-to-face which focuses on the bodily metamorphoses of the matador’s face. Reinterpreting her in the guise of the drag king, both relax as they seduce each other, engaged in a circular choreography which plays on a disorder instilled in the genre. The result of research carried out in the field, in bullfighting schools, breeding sites and at a tailor between the South of France and Madrid, mata! makes shifts at the heart of this aesthetic-political node to think about bullfighting beyond the show. *Please note that, during mata!, part of the audience will be standing. This performance includes the use of a fake cigarette on stage. It is a prop that does not involve combustion and produces no ash or open flame.Darius Dolatyari-Dolatdoust is a Franco-Iranian-German-Polish artist. He develops a cross-disciplinary practice combining visual arts, textiles, performance and choreography. His works—patchworks, kilts, felts, costumes—question notions of exile, memory and identity through a living, shifting textile material, a vector of transformation. The costume becomes a site of metamorphosis, where bodies are distorted to invent new narratives. Inspired by Persian arts, family archives or archaeological objects, he reassembles a fragmented memory and creates imagined landscapes populated by hybrid entities. DRESSING – Credits Concept: Darius Dolatyari-DolatdoustPerformance: Darius Dolatyari-Dolatdoust, Mallaury Scala, Hélio VolanaCostume: Darius Dolatyari-DolatdoustCostume and accessory collaborations: Rozy Sapelkine, Sarah Belfer, Constance TabourgaChoreographic vision: Lynda RahalExternal perspective: Grégoire SchallerSound composition: Paul LajusLighting design: Maureen BéguinProduction: DDDMM Company + Vincent BrouCo-production: Wiels, 3bisf, with the support of the DRAC Île-de-France – Ministry of CultureSupport: Pianofabriek, ISAC, La Ménagerie de verre, Le Point ÉphémèreWith the support of ONDA, SACD, and the Caisse des DépôtsIn partnership with the Théâtre de VanvesDuration: 30 minutes mata! – Credits Concept: Darius Dolatyari-Dolatdoust and Grégoire SchallerPerformed by: Darius…