Yinka Shonibare: Odile and Odette
Details of acclaimed artist Yinka Shonibare's new film, being screened as a part of the Royal Opera House's Summer Big Screen series.
The Royal Opera House is delighted to be featuring a short film by Yinka Shonibare to be shown during the interval of the BP Summer Big Screens - Live relays from the Royal Opera House - on 8, 21 and 30 June at various locations in the UK.
The film, with choreography by Kim Brandstrup features two ballerinas, one black one white, who explore the Swan Lake roles of Odile and Odette through a baroque mirror emphasizing the interplay between reality and reflection, conscious and unconscious. With the dancers wearing classical tutus made of African textiles Shonibare's film challenges assumptions about representation by playfully blurring the boundaries between stereotypically Western ideas about 'high' art and traditional categorisations of 'African art.'
Yinka Shonibare was born and educated in London while spending much of his youth in Nigeria. This duel nationality, or perhaps the feeling of not sitting squarely within either culture, is central to his art. Shonibare's work - which ranges from painting and photography to sculpture and installation - has always sought to make visible the cultural influences of colonization, not just upon those who have been colonized, but also upon the colonizers.
Choreographer Kim Brandstrup has developed a unique and innovative style of narrative contemporary dance. He draws on the audience's rich communal heritage of themes and stories, using sources as diverse as Greek myths to 20th century cinema; teasing threads of narrative and character to tell ambitious and rewarding stories.
Odile and Odette
forms a core part of the ROH2 visual arts strand -
Performing Art
. This new strand encourages a creative symbiosis between the visual and performing arts by combining the talents of world class opera singers, choreographers, dancers and musicians with some of the most innovative visual artists working today.
- June 8 at 7.30pm:
- BP Big Screen in Trafalgar Square, London. BBC screens at Clayton Square, Liverpool; Exchange Square, Manchester; Queen Victoria Square, Hull; Chamberlain Square, Birmingham; Duthie Park Aberdeen.
Shown in the interval of The Royal Ballet's Triple Bill - 'The Dream'/new Christopher Bruce/'Symphony in C'.
- June 21 at 7pm:
- BP Big Screen in the Covent Garden Piazza, London. BBC screens at Clayton Square, Liverpool; Exchange Square, Manchester; Queen Victoria Square, Hull; Chamberlain Square, Birmingham.
Shown during the interval of The Royal Opera's production of Verdi's 'Rigoletto'.
- JJune 30 at 7.30pm:
- BP Big Screens in the Covent Garden Piazza, Victoria Park and Canada Square in London, and the Botanical Gardens, Belfast. BBC screens at Clayton Square, Liverpool; Exchange Square, Manchester; Queen Victoria Square, Hull; Chamberlain Square, Birmingham.
Shown during the interval of The Royal Opera's production of Puccini's 'La Bohème'.
