High Gear

Performance duration: 1 hour

Admission: $5 / Free for AXENÉO7 and SAW members and Théâtre du Trillium subscribers

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High Gear examines the relentless cycle of production, consumption and reincarnation. Structured like a yonkoma manga—a narrative format often used in the political press—the performance moves through four themes: being born, eating, working and dying, within a closed circuit where representations are continually absorbed, deconstructed and reformed.

Kidows Kim refuses to reproduce these patterns; instead, he subverts them in order to break their repetition and free himself from them. He assembles a corporeal collection of figures drawn from intimate memories, infected and entangled within manga imagery.

From this chaos emerges a ghostly, fragmented body attempting to find its way through. High Gear becomes a space where the body is exposed and decomposes, an incessant quest for an elusive outside.

Born in South Korea, Kidows Kim is an artist based in Paris. His creations form an intimate cosmogony in the form of a “Dictionary of Fantastic Creatures,” the first three chapters of which have been unveiled through previous performances. His work is informed by “Monstrarchaeology,” a method that excavates an ambiguous organic form, wandering between the figurative and the abstract, from collective memories and intimate, gendered, social and political experiences.

Kidows Kim’s High Gear is presented as part of a Canadian tour organized by L’Écart (Rouyn-Noranda), in partnership with Filles électriques / Festival Phénomena (Montreal), SAW (Ottawa), Théâtre du Trillium (Ottawa) and AXENÉO7 (Gatineau) in collaboration with Actoral (Marseille). This tour is made possible through financial support from the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec’s program supporting the presentation of works from outside Quebec.

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Co-produced by La Ménagerie de verre; CCN Ballet national de Marseille, under the direction of (LA)HORDE; ICI-CCN Montpellier Occitanie, under the direction of Christian Rizzo; and La Place de la danse CDCN Toulouse Occitanie. With support from DRAC Île-de-France through its creation assistance program and from the Agency for Cultural Affairs, Government of Japan, in fiscal year 2023.

Creation residencies: La Bellone, Brussels; Kunstencentrum Buda, Kortrijk; CND Centre national de la danse; The Saison Foundation Japan; Workspacebrussels.

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SAW funders  Canada Council for the Arts, City of Ottawa, Ontario Arts Council, Ontario Trillium Foundation, Ottawa Community Foundation, Government of Canada, Government of Ontario

Partners  L’Écart, AXENÉO7, Théâtre du Trillium, Korean Cultural Centre Canada