"Dancehall Weather" Performance by Cecilia Bengolea

For the Art Explora festival, Cecilia Bengolea returns with *Dancehall Weather*, a performance created at the Bourse de Commerce in Paris, which brings together the Argentine choreographer and dancer with two of her close collaborators: dancer Craig Black Eagle (Jamaica) and dancer Nika Mad Spirit (Ukraine).

Their dance movements interact with the artist’s video archives, chronicling ten years of research and choreographic collaborations in Jamaica. The footage, shot in Bog Walk, a neighborhood in Craig Black Eagle, shows young people dancing by the side of the road in the pouring rain, as a thunderstorm rumbles overhead. Their movements are inspired by Jamaican dancehall, which Cecilia Bengolea considers to have healing potential.

The performance opens with an "Early Settings" session—a musical interlude that takes place before the festivities begin: a selection of pieces designed to honor those who have passed away, to reflect, and to bring everyone together.

Cecilia Bengolea

Cecilia Bengolea was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 1979. She now lives and works in France. Cecilia Bengolea uses a variety of means of expression, including live performance, video and sculpture. For her, dance is a tool and a means of eliciting deep empathy and emotional exchange. The artist develops a wide range of artistic activities in which she conceives movement, dance and performance as animated sculptures, and in which she is both the object and subject of her own work. She has collaborated with dancehall artists such as Craig Black Eagle, Bombom DHQ, Damion BG, as well as with artists Dominique Gonzalez Forster and Jeremy Deller. Cecilia Bengolea's work has been exhibited worldwide: at the Lyon Biennale (2015), at the Tanks at Tate Modern, London (2015), at the São Paulo Biennale (2016), at the Centre Pompidou, Paris (2010 and 2016) and at the Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2015 and 2018).