Working at the intersection of cinema, photography, and installation, Clément Cogitore examines ritual, collective memory, and notions of the sacred. Les Indes Galantes takes its title and music from a 1735 opera-ballet by French composer Jean-Philippe Rameau. The fourth and final section of the opera is inspired by a meeting in 1725 between six Native American tribal chiefs and King Louis XV, during which the chiefs performed several traditional dances. Cogitore pairs Rameau’s dramatic Baroque soundtrack with a style of dance born in Los Angeles in the early 1990s known as K.R.U.M.P. Spanning ages, races, and ethnicities, Cogitore’s dancers gather in a circle on a sparsely-lit stage to engage in a “battle,” a common K.R.U.M.P performance format. The filmmaker captures this scene from multiple vantage points—distant observer, audience member, performer—to immerse viewers in this tight-knit dance community.

Pictured: Clément Cogitore (French, b. 1983), Les Indes Galantes, 2017, color video, 6 min. Production: Opéra national de Paris – 3° scène / Les Films Pélléas. Choreography : Brahim Rachiki, Igor Carouge, Bintou Dembele. Courtesy of the artist, Chantal Crousel Consulting, Paris (FR) and Reinhard Hauff Gallery, Stuttgart (DE)