Press Release

Maki WATANABE and Gyohei ZATSU

In conjunction with the opening of the first New York solo exhibition by French artist Christophe AVELLA-BAGUR, entitled "Floating Souls", Galerie Richard will feature two Butoh dance performances by Maki WATANABE and Gyohei ZATSU on Thursday, May 31 and Saturday, June 2, 2012. Both performances will will mark their fourth collaboration together.

Avella-Bagur's paintings depict unique human floating souls fighting to integrate mass producted idealized post-human bodies. These seductive, yet haunting works create an uncanny backdrop for a Japanese Butoh dance performance. The mutating subjects of Avella-Bagur's paintings are further activated by the erratic convulsions of Butoh dance, and vice-versa. Both painting and dance engage in a dynamic interdisciplinary conversation, forming a feed-back loop between the two.

The first dance performance will be related to the pexhibited portraits. The second one will focus more on the largest painting of the show entitled Face FS82 Pregnant Woman and Man ininspired by Eve, the Serpent and Death by Hans Baldung Grien.