Retrospective: Becoming Yvonne Rainer

A pioneering figure in the American avant-garde movement and one of the most influential performance artists of the twentieth century, Yvonne Rainer boasts a career spanning over five decades, across both dance and film. Making use of archives, re-enactments, photographs and unconventional audiovisual techniques, her films draw on critical theory and scholarly analysis while exploring deeply personal, political and social themes and issues.

At Queer Lisboa, the cycle “Retrospetiva: Becoming Yvonne Rainer” presents a set of 9 films, among 7 of Rainer’s recently restored works – including her first feature film, “Lives of Performers” (1972), a subversive reflection on romantic alliances that incorporates archival footage and choreography by Rainer herself.

In partnership with BoCA, following the screening of the sous-rature documentary “Rainer Variations” (2002) by Charles Atlas – in which an extensive interview with Rainer is interspersed with the assembly of four performers (Rainer among them) who stage and re-enact her stories –, a debate on the work of the American artist takes place with João dos Santos Martins, Gisela Casimiro and Jorge Jácome. In this conversation, moderated by Claudia Galhós and Joana Ascensão, the artists will discuss the dichotomy of Rainer’s work with the body on stage versus that of a more psychological work in cinema, as well as the contexts of the avant-garde where Rainer is inserted and the impact of her work on Portuguese choreographic creation.