Screened at Sherrif Gallery @sh and digitally premiering on Nowness @nowness

Choreographer Sulian Rios moves through pluralities and incomplete identities from the fluid surroundings of Milan’s Villa Clea

Taking over a former garage in Milan’s Scalo di Porta Romano district, artist residency Villa Clea sits alongside Fondazione Prada and ICA Milano as a part of a new creative vision emerging from the city’s periphery. Designed as a fluid space by architect Matteo Corbellini, its stripped, bright architecture plays into themes of identity and sculptural form as the location for short dance film Les Presques – directed and choreographed by French choreographer and visual artist, Sulian Rios.

Choreographed around mysterious interactions – engaging with lightweight sculptures, and a cat who enters the space – Janina Sarantsina and Hortense de Gromard explore their fluid and unfinished identities through dance. Expanding Rios’ work around the plurality of identities, they appear as two halves of a whole, becoming an extension of the space and the raw wholeness that underscores Corbellini’s design approach.

“In this project, my intention was to explore – in a very direct and playful way – the identities of the two protagonists. To me, the sculptures and Bianco, the cat, are an extension of Janina and Hortense's presences.”

Captured by cinematographer Anne Gryczka, and accompanied by Brahms’ Op.76 No 2 Capriccio in D minor – interpreted by Peter Longworth – Les Presques expresses the naivety of the evolving self through lilting movements, mirroring the subtle material interplay seen in Villa Clea’s surroundings.

Directed and choreographed by Sulian Rios @sulianrios
Interpreted by Janina Sarantsina & Hortense De Gaomard @andnose @hortensedegromard
Dressed in @chanelofficial
Filmed by Anne Gryczka @annegryczka @studiocnp
Colors by @ana.cor.color
Developed and filmed during the residency of @villa_clea
Residence direction by @______allina
Architecture by @matteo__corbellini