Lenio Kaklea en

Biography

A Hand’s Turn is what we could call a private session for two spectators at a time; it is a gesture, in a subtle choreographic sense, involving a book and a performer. In the first part of this solo piece―a solo though referring to a plurality of presences―, the performer unfolds the practices of reading, as she turns the sheets of paper from right to left, in a steady and continuous flow, proposing a duration, a trajectory, a story. The repetition of the linear movements of the hands identifies with the repetitive back and forth motions of the eyes as they scan the content and surface of the pages. This ocular itinerary, the decryption of the signs, the time and temporality created by the hand movements, the spacing of the pages deconstruct and re-assign the function of the gaze. In the second part of the encounter, the performer dances with her back to the audience; with the use of a small hand mirror she guides the visitors’ gaze in the act of seeing. After the session, one can purchase the book, tracing back their own experience, looking at their own practices of seeing ―and partly themselves in the show.

Lenio Kaklea (GR, 1985, based in Paris) trained as a dancer in Athens and Angers, also undertaking the “master d’expérimentation en arts et politique (SPEAP)” directed by Bruno Latour at Sciences Po, Paris. As a performer, she has worked with Alexandra Bachzetsis, Gerard & Kelly, François Chaignaud & Cecilia Bengolea, Emmanuelle Huynh and Boris Charmatz among others. She has been making choreographic work since 2009, presenting at Centre Pompidou, Lafayette Anticipations, Ménagerie de Verre, Paris, ImpulsTanz, Vienne, Athens & Epidaurus Festival, Quartz, Brest, Latitudes Contemporaines, Lille, Laboratoires d’Aubervilliers, far – festival des arts vivants, Nyon, and exhibited at the Centre d’art La Passerelle, Brest. In 2019, she received the Dance Prize of the Hermès Foundation and the Triennal of Milan. A Hand’s Turn was acquired by KADIST foundation in 2020.