Installations
From the 8th of September to the 24th of November, Manifesta 15 Barcelona Metropolitana presented a comprehensive programme featuring installations, archives and performances by the participants of the edition.
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Girl Talk
- TypeInstallation
- ParticipantWu Tsang
- VenueMonastery of Sant Cugat
Girl Talk, 2015 © Wu Tsang. Photo © Manifesta 15 Barcelona Metropolitana / Cecília Coca
Ten years ago, the American multimedia artist and performer Wu Tsang and the poet and scholar Fred Moten started to collaborate. They did so with an intent to discuss how identity structures can be dismantled, a line of inquiry that has assumed increasing prominence in the public arena in the years since. Among other outcomes, their discussions resulted in this work, which began when Tsang declared her admiration for Moten’s voice and desire to work with it as a subject matter. Moten responded to her declaration by saying that he would rather Tsang find a way for him to lose his voice. Tsang then proposed that Moten perform a song of his choosing in drag. He chose Girl Talk, a chauvinistic song from 1965, originally written and performed by men. The derogatory term “girl talk” is dismissive of how women speak among themselves, regarding it as mere gossip. The lyrics of the song refer to women as “the weaker sex, the ‘speaker’ sex [that] we mortal males behold”. In 1969, the singer Betty Carter recorded a version of Girl Talk that caters to women, swapping ‘they’ to ‘we’ throughout. Having received Moten’s choice, Tsang commissioned the experimental musician serpentwithfeet to arrange his own interpretation of Carter’s version. In the resulting work, Moten is seen dancing in a dress while singing serpentwithfeet’s arrangement. His doing so under the camera’s unflinching gaze pronounces how identity can be performed fluidly.
2015
HD video, colour, sound, 4’02”
Courtesy of the artist and Galerie Isabella Bortolozzi, Berlin
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