Clément Cogitore adapts a short ballet part from “Indes galantes” by Jean-Philippe Rameau, with the assistance of a group of Krump dancers, and three choreographers, on the 3rd Stage of the Paris National Opera: Bintou Dembele , Igor Caruge and Brahim Rachiki. Krump is a dance born in the ghettos of Los Angeles in the 90s. Its birth resulted from the riots and brutal police repression that followed the beating of Rodney King. 

Source: Tënk

Acknowledged to be one of the pioneers of hip-hop in France, Bintou  Dembelé began dancing in 1985. A co-founder of the groups Ykanji and  Ladyside, she also worked with Aktuel Force and at the Théâtre  Contemporain de la Danse in Paris before founding her own structure,  Rualité, in 2002. In 2019, she made her début at the Paris Opera, where  she choreographed Les Indes galantes, an opera-ballet directed  by Clément Cogitore and directed by Léonardo García Alarcón. She is an  associate artist at the Ateliers Médicis and one of the ten  international artists invited to the 10th anniversary of the Centre  Pompidou-Metz. In 2021, she will inaugurate the Villa Chicago.

Source: programme of the CND

Born in Colmar in 1983, lives and works between Paris and Berlin.   After studying at Le Fresnoy, the French National Studio of Contempory Art, Clément Cogitore developed his artistic practice at the crossroads of contemporary art and cinema. Combining film, video, installations and photographs, Cogitore questions the modalities of cohabitation between humankind and its own images and representations. Rituality, collective memory, figuration of the sacred, as well as a particular idea of the permeability of worlds are leading trends in his practice.   Cogitore’s work has notably been screened and exhibited at the Palais de Tokyo, MADRE (Naples), Centre Georges Pompidou (Paris), Institute of Contemporary Arts ICA (London), Haus der Kulturen der Welt (Berlin), MACRO (Rome), MoMA (New-York), Museum of Fine Arts (Boston), MNBA (Québec), SeMA Bunker (Seoul), Red Brick Art Museum (Beijing), Kunsthaus Baselland (Basel), and festivals and biennials such as the Lyon Biennial de Lyon (France) and the Berlin Biennial (Germany).

In 2011 Cogitore was awarded the Grand Prize of Salon de Montrouge for contemporary art and the following year he became resident of the Villa Medici, French Academy in Rome. His cinematographic works have been selected and awarded prizes in numerous international festivals (Cannes, Locarno, Telluride, Los Angeles, San Sebastian).   In 2015, his first feature film «Neither Heaven Nor Earth» was selected at the Cannes international film festival – Critic’s week, awarded by the Gan Foundation, acclaimed by critics and nominated for the best first film at the César award ceremony. That same year he won the BAL Prize for contemporary art. In 2016, he won the SciencesPo Prize for contemporary art and the 18th Fondation d’entreprise Ricard Prize for contemporary art.In   2018, Clément Cogitore was awarded the prestigious Marcel Duchamp Prize for Contemporary Art. Since 2018, he is teaching at the Ecole des Beaux Arts de Paris, where he directs a film director's workshop. 

To celebrate its 350th anniversary, the Opéra National de Paris has entrusted Clément Cogitore with staging Jean-Philippe Rameau’s opera ballet, «Les Indes galantes». The premiere has taken place in September 2019. «Les Indes Galantes» was selected by The New York Times as one of the best opera productions of 2019, nominated best opera production 2019 by the Giornale della Musica and won the Forum Opera trophy of the Best new opera production 2019. 

In 2022, his second feature film "Goutte d'or" was selected as a Special Screening at the Critics' Week of the Cannes Film Festival. The film won the Hildegarde Screenplay Award, the Best Director Award at the LEFFEST in Lisbon and the Interpretation Award at the Hainan Film Festival. In 2023, the film has been shortlisted to represent France at the Oscars.

Cogitore’s work is represented in several public collections (Centre Georges Pompidou, National Fund for Contemporary Art, Contemporary Art Fund of the City of Paris, FRAC Alsace, FRAC Aquitaine, FRAC Auvergne, MAC VAL, Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art of Strasbourg) and private collections (Louis Vuitton Collection, Daimler Art Collection).

Clément Cogitore is represented by Chantal Crousel Consulting, Paris and by Galerie Elisabeth & Reinhard Hauff, Stuttgart.

Source: Clément Cogitore

More information: clementcogitore.com/en