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Aia Bertrand with students at the Akademia, photographed by Raymond Duncan circa 1924. Courtesy : Duncan Collection
Exhibition
Akademia: Performing Life
13 Jan 2018 – 24 Mar 2018
Cost of entry
Free of charge
Address
- Chemin du Montparnasse
- 21 avenue du Maine
- Paris
Paris - 75015
- France
The exhibition will look at narratives and themes springing from the Akademia, a community and a school established by Raymond Duncan, American dancer and artist, and co-ran by Aia Bertrand. It existed between the 1920s and 1970s in Paris, offering free courses in dance, arts, and crafts.
About
Akadémia: Performing Life
With (-)auteur, Mercedes Azpilicueta (Pernod Ricard Fellow 2017), Ieva Balode, Yaïr Barelli, Aia Bertrand, Raymond Duncan, Ieva Epnere, Barbara Gaile, Daiga Grantina, Myriam Lefkowitz, Mai-Thu Perret, Andrejs Strokins
Curators : Solvita Krese, Inga Lāce, Camille Chenais
The exhibition “Akademia: Performing Life” will look at narratives and themes springing from Akademia, a community and an alternative school that offered courses in dance, art and crafts, hosted an art gallery and a publishing house and staged theatre and dance pieces between the 1910s and 1970s in Paris. Established by Raymond Duncan, American dancer and artist, and since the 1920s co-run by Aia Bertrand, a dancer, writer and an expatriate from Latvia, the Akademia was a manifestation of their ideological syncretism blending socialist principles, the desire to revive ancient Greece and a “natural” Latvian way of life. The exhibition aims to explore the ideas and principles embodied by Akademia at its inception as potential alternatives to traditional models of education, creation and community life, while also questioning its more obscure aspects.
“Akademia: Perfoming Life” unfolds over two chapters at Villa Vassillief, Paris and Latvian National Museum of Art; the exhibition is coproduced by the Latvian Centre for Contemporary Art and Bétonsalon — Center for Art and Research.
