Screening : “Utaki” by Smaïl Kanouté

18 October 2023

Wednesday 18 october 2023 at 18.00
Salle cinéma Michel Piccoli
In presence of Smaïl Kanouté
Screening followed by a discussion with the audience
Free event

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There will be no recording or broadcasting of this event.

As part of the third Romaeuropa Festival, Villa Medici is hosting a screening of Utaki by Smaïl Kanouté.

Utaki is a triptych of short dance films by choreographer and graphist or “choreo-graphist” Smaïl Kanouté. These three films reveal the painful situation of the African diasporas, through the ages and across the world. Never Twenty One (Smaïl Kanouté, Henri Coutant and Kevin Gay – english / ST english) looks at gun violence in the Bronx. Yasuke Kurosan (Smaïl Kanouté and Abdou Diouri – japanese / ST english) takes us to Japan in the footsteps of the African samurai and the current Afro-Japanese mix. So Ava (Smaïl Kanouté and Henri Coutant – french / ST english) explores voodoo philosophy in contemporary dance.

The screening ends with the short film Banîles (7’27 – French / ST english) shot at Villa Médicis during a residency in March 2022, in collaboration with critic and poet Chris Cyrille and Ateliers Médicis. Based on the story of Dante’s Divine Comedy, this metaphorical work depicts the floors of high-rise buildings in the French suburbs and across the Atlantic.

Smaïl Kanouté

Smaïl Kanouté was born in Paris in 1986. He graduated with a master’s degree in graphic design from ENSAD in 2012, and defines himself as a “choreo-graphist” and self-taught dancer, inspired by his travels around the world. He gradually came into contact with great choreographers such as Raphaëlle Delaunay from 2011 to 2013, then Radhouane El Meddeb in 2014.

Founded in 2016 by Smaïl Kanouté, Compagnie Vivons has been working with him on his own performance projects ever since: from PROJECTION(S) in 2016 to MILLE ET UNE NUITS // VARIATIONS in 2020, as well as more personal works such as Yasuke Kurosan in 2022.

In 2021, he exhibited the short film Never Twenty One at the MAC de Lyon as part of the group exhibition Comme un parfum d’aventure, and the short film Yasuke Kurosan, le samouraï noir at the Studio de la Maison Européenne de la Photographie.

In 2023, in collaboration with Native Maqari and Simon Rouby, he co-curated the group exhibition Détours d’un Quartier Monde at the Institut des Cultures d’Islam de Paris, dedicated to the Goutte d’Or district, as part of the French government’s 2023 “New Worlds” recovery plan. In residence in New Orleans and Miami as part of the Villa Albertin e, he is touring Never 21.