Within the discussion on male role models in art, our emphasis will be now on theatrical and social roles of dandyism. Does the character of the Dandy still exist today? Swiss art historian Beat Wyss has doubted so for a while. In a society, in which consumption seems to be the only convention, the Dandy, as we know him from the Fin de Siecle period, has lost his grounds: the coquettish game with High Society’s strict codes and the appropriation of those without financial means. While the Dandy, in novels as Joris-Karl Huysmans “A rebours” or Jules Barbey d’Aurevilly “On Dandyism” advanced to become a known role model of an elite male stile mainly in literature of that age, a contemporary interpretation could be found in art. The artist of today often performs an acrobatic walk on the tight rope between under-payed “creative work” and the noble chic of a global art boom. In such a perspective, the figure of the Dandy is a cultural habitus repeatedly created, that re-appears in a new disguise.
After a century of pop-history and emancipation, the relation of the once bourgeois Dandy to the figure of the Diva cannot be disregarded. Is the role of the Diva possibly a successful, extroverted and not least femininely connoted version of the Dandy or vice-versa, or are the sex-specific characteristics constitutive for this type? The pavilion- a historic venue of the 19. century, is thought to be the ideal place for a interlinking of the Dandy -debate with the confrontation of contemporary artists on today’s role models of a culturally defined figure of style.
Programme:
- 5 PM Public picknick, Music: Johann von Preussen
- 7 PM Discussion between Elisabeth Bronfen and Beat Wyss: Diva and Dandy
- 9:15 PM Christodoulos Panayiotou: Judy Garland, A Biography. Two versions of Garlands Somewhere Over the Rainbow are played simultanously: An early soundtrack accompanying The Wizard of Oz, and a late version, recorded before Garlands death.
- 9:30 PM Filmscreening Gregory Markopoulos: Through a Lens Brightly: Mark Turbyfill, 1967, 16mm, colour, sound, 15min. Political Portraits, 1969, 16mm, colour, excerpt with Ulrich Herzog, Rudolph Nureyev, Marcia Haydée und Giorgio de Chirico, 15min. Courtesy Temenos Archive. Gregory Markopoulos (1928-92) experimental films are known for their radical approach towards new ways of film-making. Almost every part of the production (as well as of the post-production) happens inside the camera, including multiple exposure techniques or cutting frame by frame. Artists, dancers or poets, filmed during the 1960s and 1970s, appear in filmic portraits only by their gestures. The open air presentation at Platzspitz Park relates to Markopoulos` concept of an open air cinema festival in Greece, the TENEMOS.
- 10:00 PM Silvie Zürcher: A John`s Tale. A lecture performance especially commissioned for the occasion, collects fragments of male characters speech from Hip-Hop to movies –partly a re-staging of heroic figures, partly causing a sheer Babylonian confusion. Finally, the female artist appears on stage as the conductor, re-arranging the heroic scraps herself.
Contributions by Elisabeth Bronfen, Beat Wyss, Christodoulos Panayiotou, Gregory Markopoulos, Silvie Zürcher
Co-curated with The John Institute
Location: Pavillon im Platzspitz-Park, Zürich