08/11/2024
나는 마릴린이다.
Over the past six months, I have questioned the relevance of showing work unrelated to the immediate plight of the Palestinian people. This project has been long overdue—a new exploration within digital media sparked during the lockdown.
Today we are sharing the online debut of the second of three independent dance films. This one featured Seoul dance artist Hyoseung Ye. I had been admiring and following Hyoseung for years in the work of Alain Platel/Les Ballet C de la B when I reached out to him. This project was a great opportunity to meet creatively and has ultimately opened up further artistic exchanges.
Below is a brief summary of the work's history and incarnations.
https://vimeo.com/969382412
The Genesis of I AM MARILYN
In response to the multifaceted persona of actress Marilyn Monroe, I AM MARILYN was initially imagined as a short film - an examination of q***r gender and sexual identities. The film never materialized, but years later it was realized as a contemporary dance solo for the stage premiering in 2008. This work marked my initial venture into integrating text with dance. My aim was to delve into character depth and seamlessly blend voice with movement.
I commissioned writer Byron Fast to explore associations with actress Marilyn Monroe, a figure demanding a compassionate lens. The result was a monologue voiced by a gay male experiencing a delusion of being Marilyn—a story resilient, defiant, raw with humor, and surreal, echoing emotional residues of repression.
The stage performance merged text and dance with a graphic sensibility. A solitary figure performed with audio (now translated into Russian), accompanied by English surtitles along an extended white wall, adding mystery and universality. The body moved abstractly, detached yet connected through shared space.
In 2013, I expanded the work with guerrilla performances at VIDEOFAG, introducing another character, another Marilyn. Translating parts of the Russian text into Spanish broadened the narrative into a shared exchange, reflecting multiple individuals living the same story.
And now, in this incarnation of I AM MARILYN, I'm exploring a broader collective scope through a three-channel video triptych, engaging three exceptional dance artists in an intimate immersive exploration aligned with the monologue.
To extend the work's impact, I developed an extension from the triptych installation—three distinct films from each dance artist's exploration. This has been a massive journey demanding self-teaching and mastering new editing programs. As challenging as this has been I am profoundly grateful for the support in furthering this work, which is deeply woven into my existence.
As a q***r artist, I see the core of I AM MARILYN resonating profoundly with aspects of relational identity—a voice that unconventionally expresses aspirations, desires, struggles, and connections in life, ultimately surfacing an empathy for existence.
With deep gratitude to Nico Stagias, Daniel Maslany Music, Oz Weaver, Danielle Baskerville, Sylvain Bombardier, AS Ahn, Johanna Bergfelt, Jung-Ah Chung, Sebastian Bash Hirtenstein, Mila Volpe, Byron Fast. Mike Moore, Eve T Theatrehaus Berlin Mitte, Orla Wittke, Canada Council for the Arts | Conseil des arts du Canada Toronto Arts Council
나는 마릴린이다. In response to the multifaceted persona of actress Marilyn Monroe this work was initially imagined as a short film - an examination of q***r gender and…
