Pauline Boudry’s and Renate Lorenz’s installation Moving Backwards (2019) is presented in Mudam’s East Gallery. Starting with the feeling of being propelled by recent reactionary backlashes, Moving Backwards explores modes of resistance, combining postmodern choreography and urban dance with guerrilla techniques and elements of queer underground culture. The installation brings together video, kinetic sculpture and performance, which will be presented both as live acts and as choreography on film.

‘Witnessing the political backlashes in terms of gender, sexual rights or the rights of refugees, and the general feeling of being forced to move backwards, we wanted to think of strategies of resistance. This is why we suggested “moving backwards”, but in the way that the Kurdish women did: it seems they are moving backwards, because their shoes leave traces in one direction in the snow. But actually, they are moving forwards.’
Pauline Boudry & Renate Lorenz

Originally conceived for the Swiss Pavilion exhibition at the 58th Venice Biennale in 2019, Moving Backwards (2019) begins with the feeling of being pushed backwards, physically manifesting the push and pull of resistance and backlash. A film installation follows the movement of five dancers as they walk or move in reverse motion. Part performed, part digitally manipulated, the work considers the temporal and spatial aspects of their movements and the doubt and ambiguities they embody. This is presented within an environment that the artists conceived as an ‘abstract club’. Entered from the ‘backstage’, it positions the viewer on a large stage, placing the audience in the position of the performers in the video work.

Installation with HD, 23 min, 2019
Choreography/performance: Julie Cunningham, Werner Hirsch, Latifa Laâbissi, Marbles Jumbo Radio, Nach

Pauline Boudry & Renate Lorenz have held solo exhibitions at Frac Bretagne, Rennes (2021); Joan, Los Angeles (2019); Centre Culturel Suisse, Paris (2018); Participant, New York (2017); Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston (2017); Van Abbe Museum, Eindhoven (2016); Nottingham Contemporary (2015); Kunsthalle Vienna (2015); Kunsthalle Zürich (2015). Group exhibitions were held at the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis (2019); ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives, Los Angeles; Le Plateau, Paris; Jumex Museum, Mexico; Moscow Museum of Modern Art, Moscow; Coreana Museum of Art, Seoul; Museo d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea di Bolzano; Medrar for Contemporary Art, Cairo; New Museum, New York (2017). Boudry and Lorenz have participated in the Rennes Biennial and have presented their work at High Line Art, New York (2018). In 2019, Boudry and Lorenz represented Switzerland at the 58th Venice Biennale.