In partnership with Collective, EAF presented BEAST!, a performance work by the French artist and poet Tarek Lakhrissi. The performance explored bestiality as a philosophical and political concept by drawing on the stigma that historically frames queer people and people who belong to the Global Majority as monstrous.
Through the reading of recent romantic and critical poems, accompanied by the lyrical vocals of Makeda Monnet and the electronic music of Victor da Silva (Fatma Pneumonia), the show was interspersed with utopian queer passions, dark corners to protect oneself, erotic dreams and free moments of improvisation. All the poems are from Lakhrissi’s last poetry book LE SANG! (BLOOD!) published by Lafayette Anticipations.
BEAST! was first produced in 2022 with Tinguely Museum, Bâle; Move Festival, Centre Pompidou, Paris; HKW, Berlin; Shedhalle, Zurich; bureau des heures invisibles, Aubervilliers; with the generous support of La Maison Populaire, Montreuil, et Fondation Lafayette Anticipations, Paris. Presented in Edinburgh with the generous support of the French Institute.
