On Friday 16 December 2011, If I Can’t Dance, I Don’t Want To Be Part Of Your Revolution is presenting the restaging of the play Five Sisters (1982) by Guy de Cointet as well as his short performance monologue Espahor ledet ko Uluner! performed by Jane Zingale, at Museo Centro de Arte Reina Sof?a in Madrid.

The presentation of Five Sisters and Espahor ledet ko Uluner! take place in the framework of the exhibition Locus Solus. Impressions of Raymond Roussel, on view until 27 February 2012. Visit the Reina Sofia website for more information.

The restaging of Five Sisters premiered on 28 and 29 October at Frascati WG in Amsterdam and was performed at STUK kunstencentrum on 3 and 4 November and at MUSAC in Le?n on 12 November. It will embark on an American and a British tour in Spring 2012.

The play presents the story of five sisters, who busy themselves with the problems and pleasures of modern life on a Sunday afternoon. The California sun provokes their reactions, emotions and moods. With Five Sisters, Guy de Cointet explored the affective wellbeing of five women who have changing, restless, encounters in their parental home, discussing issues of wardrobe, suntan, health, exotic holidays, work and painting. Five Sisters is arguably de Cointet’s most resolved and mature play, in which his former attention for objects made a shift towards dance and mime. Within the scope of his oeuvre, the play is a new step and indicates the direction in which he wanted to develop his work at the end of his life.

In addition to Five Sisters, Guy de Cointet’s performance Espahor ledet ko Uluner! will be performed by Jane Zingale at Reina Sofia. Espahor ledet ko Uluner! is a short monologue that departs from Guy de Cointet’s novel of the same name. The piece presents a succession of apparently everyday references, with different moods, in a language invented by the artist.

From the late 1960s until his untimely death in 1983, French-born artist Guy de Cointet was an influential member of the Los Angeles art scene. De Cointet’s performances are surreal sceneries in which ordinary, daily events are linked to specific objects, colours and letters – often in a lucid way. Five Sisters is the last performance that was staged during Guy de Cointet’s lifetime and marks a departure from his earlier work in its attention for light as the main catalyst of emotion. Guy de Cointet collaborated with the sculptor Eric Orr who created the lighting, set design and part of the sound, and with the musician Joseph Hammer. In the new production, the light and sound plan is reconstructed by Elizabeth Orr. The performers are dressed by moniquevanheist.

The restaging of Five Sisters is the result of a research conducted by art historian Marie de Brugerolle, as part of If I Can’t Dance’s programme Performance in Residence. With this programme, If I Can’t Dance aims to research performances as case studies and proposes to connect archival research to practice. The current rendition of the play addresses questions around the idea of ‘making Five Sisters anew’, and departs from earlier restagings of de Cointet’s plays that focused on reconstruction.

Concept play and text: Guy de Cointet
Light and stage design: Eric Orr
Director: Jane Zingale
Dramaturge: Marie de Brugerolle
Performers: Violeta Sanchez, Einat Tuchman, Adva Zakai, Veridiana Zurita (read biographies of the performers here.)
Light & sound: Elizabeth Orr
Wardrobe: moniquevanheist
Curator: Fr?d?rique Bergholtz
Curatorial assistant: Vivian Ziherl
Publication: If I Can’t Dance, design by Will Holder
Language: English spoken

Five Sisters is initiated and co-produced by If I Can’t Dance in Amsterdam, STUK Kunstencentrum in Leuven and MUSAC in Le?n, and is financially supported by the Guy de Cointet Estate, ?tant Donn?s, the Mondriaan Foundation, the Culture Programme of the European Union, and the Amsterdam Fund for the Arts. With thanks to Yael Davids, Dora Garc?a, the Eric Orr Estate, Frascati Theatre and SMART Project Space.

Five Sisters on Tour:

Friday 28 and Saturday 29 October 2011
Frascati WG
M.v.B. Bastiaansestraat 54, Amsterdam
Booking required
www.theaterfrascati.nl

Thursday 3 and Friday 4 November 2011
STUK kunstencentrum
Naamsestraat 96, Leuven
Booking required
www.stuk.be

Saturday 12 November 2011
Museo de Arte Contempor?neo de Castilla y Le?n (MUSAC)
Avenida Reyes Leoneses 24, Le?n
Booking required
www.musac.es

Friday 16 December 2011
Museo Centro de Arte Reina Sof?a
c/ Santa Isabel, 52, Madrid
Booking required
www.museoreinasofia.es