Kering and West Bund Museum Celebrate Female Choreographers with Third Edition of Women In Motion Festival

Kering and West Bund Museum Celebrate Female Choreographers with Third Edition of Women In Motion Festival

(IN BRIEF) Kering and the West Bund Museum are hosting the 3rd edition of Women In Motion at West Bund on September 21-22, 2024, celebrating female choreographers from China and France. This year’s festival, themed “Body Matters,” focuses on the human body’s creative potential through performances, workshops, and discussions. Notable works include collaborations between French choreographer Julie Nioche and Chinese choreographer Hou Ying, as well as Gu Jiani’s new piece, Morphing. The event continues Kering’s commitment to enhancing cultural exchanges and supporting female artistic talent.

(PRESS RELEASE) PARIS, 7-Sep-2024 — /EuropaWire/ — The West Bund Museum and Kering are thrilled to announce the return of the Women In Motion initiative, now in its third edition. The event, which celebrates female creativity in choreography, will take place from September 21 to 22, 2024, marking a significant cultural exchange between China and France as part of the 60th anniversary of their diplomatic relations.

This year’s festival, themed “Body Matters,” highlights innovative choreographic works by prominent Chinese and French artists. The initiative, curated by Dew Ge, aims to explore and showcase the expressive potential of the human body through dance.

French choreographer Julie Nioche and Chinese choreographer Hou Ying will debut their collaborative piece, Differences, a dance duet that reflects their distinct bodily experiences and cultural narratives. Nioche will also present L’impassé-e, an interactive performance exploring the unifying power of dance. Meanwhile, emerging talent Gu Jiani will perform Morphing, a piece that delves into the transformative effects of time on modern life.

The festival features a dynamic lineup including performances, film screenings, talks, workshops, and improvisational dance events. It serves as a platform for dialogue and artistic exchange, promoting mutual understanding and appreciation between Chinese and French choreographers.

The West Bund Museum, known for its innovative approach to integrating art and audience engagement, continues to be a pivotal space for cultural collaboration. Anda Chen, Executive Director of the museum, expressed enthusiasm about the ongoing partnership with Kering, emphasizing its role in fostering new forms of artistic expression.

Jinqing Cai, President of Kering Greater China, highlighted the significance of this year’s festival in empowering female artists and expanding the boundaries of creative collaboration. The Women In Motion initiative not only celebrates female talent but also contributes to a broader cultural dialogue, reinforcing Kering’s commitment to supporting diverse artistic voices.

The festival promises to be a celebration of dance and creativity, bridging cultural and artistic divides while highlighting the remarkable contributions of women in the performing arts.

Event Details:

• Dates: September 21-22, 2024

Location: West Bund Museum, No.2600 Longteng Ave., Xuhui District, Shanghai

The Curator

Dew GE: Founder of Body On&On, curator and producer in performing arts. Dedicated to inclusive arts, contemporary dance, and body research. IVLP International Visitor Leadership Program alumni and 2023 alumni award winner, PFP alumni, 2023 Ginkgo Fellow. She has extensive experience in production and international collaboration, including dances Tu Tu, Moment, Track, GALA Xiamen/Beijing, etc. Her productions have been invited to participate in international festivals in the US, the UK, Germany, Italy, South Korea, etc. She has established cooperation with art groups and choreographers in more than ten countries and has also curated and initiated several art festival projects, including the Touch Contact Improvisation Festival (2017-), the Luminous Festival (China’s first inclusive arts festival) (2019-), and the China-UK Disability Arts Forum (2019-2023), etc., aiming to promote diversity and inclusivity in culture and art, and to establish rich embodied fields and extensive social participation.

The Artists:

Julie Nioche: A choreographer, dancer and osteopath. She graduated from the Conservatoire National Supérieur de musique et de danse de Paris (CNSMDP) in 1995; She founded A.I.M.E., a company defined from the outset as both the bearer of her own artistic projects, and an incubator for collective research and creative projects focused on social issues; she completed orthopedic training in 2009 and participated in several medical ethics conferences. In addition, she holds a degree in psychology. In 2022, Julie Nioche was named “Chevalier de l’ordre des Arts et Lettres” by the Ministry of Culture. She has always combined theoretical knowledge with practical experience around the body to develop her creative process and research. She combines physical practice with improvisational dance creation, developing a dance where everyone can be a creator. The core of her work is to seek and create an extraordinary, powerful body that, even when constrained or fragile, becomes a treasury of fantastical images and imaginative creations.

Hou Ying: A dancer and pioneering choreographer previously based in the United States, founder, and artistic director of Hou Ying Dance Theater. In 1996 she made her debut with the work Spirit of the Night at the Russian International Dance Competition. In 2001, she was awarded the Asian Cultural Council Scholarship to research and create in New York. In 2002 she joined Shen Wei Dance Arts in New York, becoming both an essential dancer and eventually the rehearsal director of the company. She was featured three times in the New York Times and was acclaimed as the most outstanding dancer of the year in 2004. In 2008, she returned to China to participate in the creation of The Scroll, for the Beijing Olympic Games opening ceremony. In 2009, she shifted her focus of work to Beijing, founding in 2011 the Hou Ying Dance Theater, dedicated to promoting contemporary dance.

Gu Jiani: An independent choreographer and involved in body movement research, objects and space. Gu embarked on a journey as an independent choreographer in 2012 and conducted the “GO&N SPACE” body project with Li Nan. In 2016, Gu founded the Untitled Group in China together with Xuanqi Wang. During this period, she has explored the complex connection between the body and the environment through her work, and has devoted herself to the dynamic study of contemporary body language, creating connections and spatial imagery through the subtle observation of force. In 2019, she was also awarded Asian Arts and Culture fund (ACC), New York scholarship and traveled to New York for an exchange program. Gu excels at constructing “bar-thrust duo connecting movement” practice as a gateway to mind-body introspection, and has developed a range of approaches to bodywork over the course of a decade.

About Women In Motion

Kering’s commitment to women is at the heart of the Group’s priorities and extends, through Women In Motion, to the field of arts and culture, where gender inequalities are still glaring, even though creation is one of the most powerful vectors for change.

In 2015, Kering launched Women In Motion at the Festival de Cannes with the ambition of highlighting women in cinema, both in front of and behind the camera. The program has since expanded in a major way to photography, but also to art, design, choreography, and music. Through its Awards, the program recognizes inspirational figures and emerging female talent, while its Talks and Podcasts provide an opportunity for leading personalities to share their views on the representation of women in their profession. Since it was created, Women In Motion has become a platform of choice that contributes to changing mind sets and thinking on the place of women – and the recognition they receive – in the arts and culture.

About West Bund Museum

Located in the Shanghai Corniche in Xuhui District, West Bund Museum is one of the core public cultural institutions that make up the famed West Bund Cultural Corridor along the Huangpu River Waterfront.

Designed by renowned British architect Sir David Chipperfield, West Bund Museum first broke ground in 2017 and has been officially open to the public since 2019. In the inaugural year, the Museum joined hands with the Centre Pompidou for an unprecedented cultural partnership.

With cultural exchange between China and the world as its mission and visual art, performance art, New Media art, and contemporary design as cultural through lines, the collaboration between West Bund Museum and Centre Pompidou with its disciplines of architecture, audiovisual experimentation, music, film, visual art is forming an ongoing dialogue productively and vibrantly.

From here and on, West Bund Museum will continue to be on the conceptual and structural frontiers of art museums, pushing the boundaries of traditional institutions, and is dedicated to being an open, inclusive, and public multi-disciplinary cultural center.

About Kering

A global Luxury group, Kering manages the development of a series of renowned Houses in Fashion, Leather Goods and Jewelry: Gucci, Saint Laurent, Bottega Veneta, Balenciaga, Alexander McQueen, Brioni, Boucheron, Pomellato, DoDo, Qeelin and Ginori 1735, as well as Kering Eyewear and Kering Beauté. By placing creativity at the heart of its strategy, Kering enables its Houses to set new limits in terms of their creative expression while crafting tomorrow’s Luxury in a sustainable and responsible way. We capture these beliefs in our signature: “Empowering Imagination”.

Media Contacts:

Roger HE
+ 86 (21) 6185 3528
roger.he@kering.com

Yun JIANG
+ 86 (21) 6185 3683
yun.jiang@kering.com

Kecan LI
+ 86 (21) 6466 6161
kecan.li@karlaotto.com

SOURCE: Kering