Gay Guerilla
Gay Guerilla (2023)
Measurements: 16m00x5m00
Materials: motors, steel, aluminium, custom light, haze, laser
“Now the reason I use Gay Guerilla, G-U-E-R-R-I-L-L-A, is because these names, either I glorify them or they glorify me. And in the case of ‘guerrilla,’ that glorifies ‘gay.’ … A guerrilla is someone who in any case is sacrificing his life for a point of view. And you know if there is a cause, and if it is a great cause, those who belong to that cause will sacrifice their blood because without blood there is no cause. So therefore that is the reason that I use ‘gay guerrilla,’ in hopes that I might be one if called upon to be one.” – Julius Eastman
‘Gay Guerrilla by Julius Eastman is a time capsule capturing the struggles and aspirations for equal rights from past generations that still echoes into our times. The composer’s minimalist approach together with Eastmans inspiration from Bach make gay Guerilla a subtle but spiritually charged piece of art that challenges accepted norms even to this day. The installation & performance expose Eastmans innermost desire for LGBTQ rights suggested in the title and manifests a shameless ritual of desire, surrender and commitment to a single cause – having the right to be yourself’. – Christian Guerematchi
‘I feel the notes of Eastman are these separate pieces he adds to a monument of music. With the expressive title and the melodic shifts in the systematic build he seems to slowly shift the perceiver’s perspective. Inspired by the choreography and vision of Guerematchi and Eastman’s appropriation of Bach’s Coral in the music the scenography will be the scenery of an almost religious ritual: a ritual to support the visual statement and rise of the Gay Guerrilla Guerematchi is portraying. Larger-than-life pillars create a space within the space – loosely inspired on the floorplan of Bach’s famous Thomaskirche in Leipzig. These seemingly static pillars completely shift form during the experience, just like Eastman’s piece does. When the ritual is performed by Guerematchi the audience is merely a bystander in this church, in the installation the role of the audience becomes the one of performer.’ – Boris Acket
Creative direction / Christian Geurematchi, Boris Acket • Creative engineering / Merijn Versnel