(LA)HORDE: Heureux sous son ombre
A choreographic video portrait and commissioned installation celebrating the underlying synchronicity of a Paris suburb’s socially diverse population.
Curated by James Voorhies, with Claudia Mattos
The Bass Museum of Art
Miami Beach, FL
October 16, 2024–April 27, 2025
Made possible with funding and staff from The Bass; realized within my responsibilities as Chief Curator of The Bass
(LA)HORDE is a France-based multidisciplinary collective founded in 2013 by artists Marine Brutti, Jonathan Debrouwer, and Arthur Harel. As directors of the Ballet de Marseille, the trio pushes the boundaries of classical dance to explore how bodies are represented in public space, social networks, objects, and onstage—all captured here at The Bass in (LA)HORDE’s premiere exhibition in the United States.
Bondy (2017)—a mesmerizing video portrait of a contemporary globalized community—is the show’s centerpiece. In 2017, the commune of Bondy, a Paris suburb, and Centre National de la Danse invited (LA)HORDE to produce a choreographic portrait of Bondy and its residents. The aim was to venture into the community and meet ordinary citizens who dance but may not have any formal training. (LA)HORDE invited these individuals—representing a wide demography of age, gender, and cultural background—to film themselves dancing, and directing themselves as they danced, in venues of their choice.
Some fifty community members volunteered to participate in the project, including high-school cheerleaders, seniors in a dance club, and even synchronized swimmers. In the video, participants are shown dancing or performing routines in their respective zones of community activity. Additionally, members of local motorcycle clubs in full biker regalia mimic the movements of their mounted rides in staged pantomimes; equal parts graceful and menacing, these poetic interludes offer an enthralling subtext to the otherwise straightforward choreographed vignettes.
The exhibition’s title is a nod to Bondy’s eighteenth-century municipal motto Heureux sous son ombre, or “Happy under its shadow.” Referring to the township’s origins near the eponymously named forest, the motto was adopted to rehabilitate the image of a region once plagued by highwaymen and banditry. (LA)HORDE’s sculpture HEUREUX SOUS SON OMBRE (2024), presented alongside the video, similarly acknowledges culturally demarcated spaces of threat and civilization, with ideas about society that perennially emerge in politically constructed guises. Nearby, its conceptual cousin, the sculpture Ghost Light, The Bass, Miami (2024), echoes this call to alleviate collective anxiety, alluding to the theater tradition of placing a utility light onstage after hours to ensure the safety of personnel in a darkened theater (or, superstitiously, to keep the ghosts company).
Bondy was produced by the commune of Bondy and Centre National de la Danse, in the commune of Pantin, with financial support by Département de la Seine-Saint-Denis under the cultural and patrimonial cooperation agreement. HEUREUX SOUS SON OMBRE and Ghost Light, The Bass, Miami are commissioned and produced by The Bass, Miami Beach.
Production credits
Assistant director and project manager: Héloïse Lesimple; second assistant director: Louis Kiock; director of photography: Hugo Paturel: camera assistants: Céline Erb and Laure Boyer; stage management: Lydie Debrouwer; editor: Edouard Mailaender; color grading: François Masingue; music and sound design: Aamourocean.
With the participation of members of Yuniti Organization, Assirem, Liens et Cultures et Gwarado, Cheerleaders’ club of Bondy, girls from the high school fashion section of Madeleine Vionnet, Mégane and Yliana R, members of Art Western Organization by Dominique Tabeur, members of Clédvie Organization, swimmers of the synchronized swimming lessons by Gwendoline Dehan, the students of the singing workshop by Carole Masseport, Youth from Ribat Studio, members of CCAS, the children of the youth service of Pierre Curie, Barbara Migny from Lala Compagny, members of motorcycle clubs: Grégory Bergalasse, Valentin Gaulier, Aldric Fabré, Justine Perez, Alice Dignazio, Sébastien Dominique, Christophe Gaulier, Mickaël Banchelin, Anthony Opacic, Simon Semaan, Léa Rosenthal, Tanguy Aot, Patrick Silva, and members of the group Tmax by Mickaël Lo.
(LA)HORDE wishes to extend thanks to the staff of the arts and cultures department, the youth department, Frédéric Tisseau, Kristelle Spardin, Peter and Trevor from Ribat Studio, CCAS of Bondy, Tournesol’s pool staff, Madeleine Vionnet High School, Isabelle Chesneau, Tom M. de Peyret, and Lydie Debrouwer.