HELIO VOLANA
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Dildo's Lament
is a body of work that borrows its structure from opera: each piece constitutes a self-contained act, ranging from performance to installation, and from solo works to collaborative forms.Production, Mentorship & Support Grant: FoRTE 2024 — Île-de-France Region. Executive Production: La Muse en Circuit — Alfortville. Co-producer: Le Générateur — Gentilly. Artist in residence: Des plans sur la comète, Point éphémère X Cheville— Paris
Residency & Performances Maison des arts de Malakoff · La Ménagerie de Verre · Théâtre de Vanves · Le Générateur · FIAP Martinique · Théâtre de l’Élysée · Festival d’Art et Création Trans · Fesses-tival de Genève
The title of the body of work is inspired by the aria Dido’s Lament, from Henry Purcell’s opera Dido and Aeneas. Here, the vibrations of dildos replace Queen Dido’s laments.Each act constitutes a ceremony.
Through fragments of memory and personal recollections, Hélio Volana exposes the mechanisms of a patriarchal and predominantly white society that assigns bodies perceived as racialized to positions that are either hypersexualized or, conversely, threatening.
They appropriate the gestures and aesthetics of the mortuary to ward off these assignments and embrace their body as they experience it, rather than as it is or has been perceived.The vibrations of the dildos form a pink, melancholic chorus of mourners that runs through the entire body of work. At times, they resonate with cymbals and percussion membranes, or let their cavernous chants be heard. Hélio Volana blends autotuned laments and emancipatory sermons into this dildophonic polyphony.Through a camp aesthetic, Hélio Volana reappropriates funeral rituals to lull the Blantriarcal norms one last time, before bidding them farewell and laying them to rest.
Through fragments of memory and personal recollections, Hélio Volana exposes the mechanisms of a patriarchal and predominantly white society that assigns bodies perceived as racialized to positions that are either hypersexualized or, conversely, threatening.
They appropriate the gestures and aesthetics of the mortuary to ward off these assignments and embrace their body as they experience it, rather than as it is or has been perceived.The vibrations of the dildos form a pink, melancholic chorus of mourners that runs through the entire body of work. At times, they resonate with cymbals and percussion membranes, or let their cavernous chants be heard. Hélio Volana blends autotuned laments and emancipatory sermons into this dildophonic polyphony.Through a camp aesthetic, Hélio Volana reappropriates funeral rituals to lull the Blantriarcal norms one last time, before bidding them farewell and laying them to rest.