Since the early days of photography and technological imagery, numerous experiments have been conducted to depict the intelligence of the body in action. The project Performance, initiated by the Centre national des arts plastiques, is part of the Paris 2024 Cultural Olympiad. It highlights projects that explore sports as a space for play, interaction, negotiation, and dialogue between individuals. In this context, Twerk Nation portrays a discipline (twerking) along with its ecosystem and its codes.

“First, there are these bodies flourishing in rocky landscapes. Their eyes confidently meet the camera while their limbs extend outward. They are all members of La Famille Maraboutage, a Marseille-based artistic collective advocating for a more inclusive celebration. While the photographs were taken in southeastern France, in locations such as the Sarragan quarry in Les Baux-de-Provence, the action could just as well be set in a cosmic elsewhere. Lila Neutre decentralizes these Black bodies, constantly confined to the same stereotypical settings. Through her lens, they become lunar creatures or perhaps even resilient figures within Afrofuturist communities.

Next, in Madrid, at the International Twerk Championships, Lila Neutre continued her project. There, she was struck by the significance of self-staging devices. Her photographs reveal a growing trend: as the discipline becomes more institutionalized, an increasing number of white women practice it, often at the expense of the presence of Black women, despite their foundational role in the dance. Her most recent photographs were taken in the dimly lit rooms of La Waka Waka Dance Academy in Lille. Glittery shorts, braided hair, and velvet curtains appear in the frame. The shots are tighter, sometimes nearly abstract, yet also more sensual.

To challenge the reductive perceptions that persist around twerking, Lila Neutre ultimately turns to words. While the discipline remains subject to sexist and racist stereotypes, it has historically been a tool of empowerment for Black women. As a retort to this distorted vision, the artist repurposes lyrics from songs, transforming them into feminist slogans reminiscent of the placards held by suffragettes. She even stages herself, compiling a glossary that parodies the concepts shaping the discipline.

Lila Neutre offers snapshots of the present and invites us to engage with this wealth of thought. Her methodology mirrors that of a strobe light—she gathers beams of insight and applies a filter to them. Under this new light, stereotypes struggle to hold. Hopefully, they will eventually fade away altogether.”

Excerpt from « Éclats dansés: politique du déhanché » by Camille Bardin, published in Performance by Poursuites éditions.