Gerard & Kelly: Ruins

As a cornerstone to “Ruins”, Gerard & Kelly present work from their ongoing series “Modern Living”, mining what the artists call “ruins of modernism” for their hidden choreographies and radical social experiments.

The exhibition also includes several site-specific interventions. Gerard & Kelly’s first short fiction, “Bright Hours” (2022), will be projected at the Cinéma Sémaphore in Nîmes. Inspired by the fleeting encounter between architect Le Corbusier and the American dancer and singer Josephine Baker on a transatlantic cruise, “Bright Hours” imagines how this relationship transformed modern architecture.To conclude the exhibition in March 2023, Gerard & Kelly will re-stage “State of” (2019), a performance featuring three dancers who use the American flag, the U.S. national anthem, and a pole dance to question symbols of nationalism. With the Maison Carrée, a first-century Roman temple, in the background, the performance takes on new and expanded meanings.