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Session

Out of Control

Camilo Godoy

A photo of black paper
A photo of black paper

Due to the process-based nature of the Session program, this project will undergo constant modifications; the features of this page provide accruing information on the project’s developments.

Date:
November 6–December 15, 2018

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To make an appointment, please sign up no later than 10 am the same day at recessartscheduling.as.me

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On November 6, Camilo Godoy will begin Out of Control, a project that will transform Recess into a dance studio to develop a choreography entitled What did they actually see?

Out of Control is inspired by Godoy’s ongoing research into colonial texts from the 17th to 19th century written by European missionaries and explorers that describe the dance practices of non-European people. The project title references colonial accounts by Europeans characterizing the dance practices of non-European and non-white people as “out of control,” “lacking discipline,” and being without “civility.”

Godoy’s Session will draw upon these records, which he considers to be the earliest forms of dance criticism in the “New World,” to interrogate and disrupt the construction of non-Europeans as “barbaric,” “possessed,” and “deviant” bodies. Godoy’s Session will engage the public through film screenings, workshops for adults and children, open rehearsals, a performance series, and a dance party to explore how these legacies of the colonial gaze reverberate in present day. Employing the dance studio as a site of pedagogy, community, and collaboration, Out of Control will consider how spaces of performance allow us to forge new bonds of kinship and belonging.

Session invites artists to use Recess’s public platform to combine productive studio space with dynamic exhibition opportunities. Sessions remain open to the public from the first day of the artist’s project through the last, encouraging sustained dialogue between artists and audiences. Due to the process-based nature of Session, projects undergo constant revision and the above proposal is subject to change.

About the artist

Camilo Godoy

Camilo Godoy is an artist whose practice is concerned with the construction of political meanings and histories. His work engages with conceptual, photographic, and choreographic strategies to negotiate questions that confront the politics of citizenship, imperialism and sexuality. He was born in Bogotá, Colombia and is based in New York, United States. He is a graduate of The New School with a BFA from Parsons School of Design, 2012; and a BA from Eugene Lang College of Liberal Arts, 2013. Godoy was a 2017 Artist-in-Residence, International Studio & Curatorial Program (ISCP); 2015-2017 Artist-in-Residence, Movement Research; 2014 Keyholder Resident, Lower East Side Printshop; 2014 EMERGENYC Fellow, The Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics, NYU; and 2012 Fellow, Queer Art Mentorship. His work has been presented in New York in public space as a billboard and at venues such as Movement Research at the Judson Church, New York; La MaMa Galleria, New York; Donaufestival, Krems; and Mousonturm, Frankfurt, among others. Godoy has an upcoming solo exhibition in February 2019 at CUE in New York.

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