This study analyses Clément Cogitore’s short video (Les Sauvages, 2017) from the perspective of postcolonial criticism (in particular Homi K. Bhabha’s concept of stereotype). The video (based on the famous excerpt from J.-Ph. Rameau’s opera The Gallant Indians) unleashes extraordinary energies to shock and captivate the viewer, blending the French Baroque work with the explosive, at once terrifying and fascinating movement culture of the unique street dance, the “KRUMP”. The attempt to “decolonial” contextualize the colonial utopia of the Enlightenment opera, made even more complex by the visual- acoustic devices of the video, creates an exciting but contradictory form of hybridity.
This study analyses Clément Cogitore’s short video (Les Sauvages, 2017) from the perspective of postcolonial criticism (in particular Homi K. Bhabha’s concept of stereotype). The video (based on the famous excerpt from J.-Ph. Rameau’s opera The Gallant Indians) unleashes extraordinary energies to shock and captivate the viewer, blending the French Baroque work with the explosive, at once terrifying and fascinating movement culture of the unique street dance, the “KRUMP”. The attempt to “decolonial” contextualize the colonial utopia of the Enlightenment opera, made even more complex by the visual- acoustic devices of the video, creates an exciting but contradictory form of hybridity.