Cherish Menzo: FRANK

Dance & Performance: FRANK

Fri 25. & Sat 26.04., 19.30h, from Cherish Menzo

Cherish Menzo’s works open up speculations and dialogues around the Black body and the multilayered entanglements of the African diaspora. In previous pieces, the choreographer devoted herself to a complex examination of stereotypical female figures in hip-hop videos or the astronomical phenomenon of dark matter via Afrofuturism. In her new piece, she explores embodiments of the monstrous in order to question categories of the strange as well as dominant norms.

The title "FRANK" refers to honesty and directness. But it’s also short for Frankenstein. As an "inhuman" creature of threatening otherness, this prototype of the monster is the metaphorical incarnation of common beliefs and narratives that terrify humanity. Playing with ambivalent images, distortions and enigmatic glitches, Menzo confronts the horror that underlies the concept of the monster and makes prevailing narratives and the supposedly familiar collapse.

Artist Talk following the performance on Fri 25.04.
Curator Djamila Grandits in conversation with Cherish Menzo and participants in the production. In English.