Preview Performance

MJ HARPER’S Arias For A New World is a complex work in itself, and is minimalist in its visual form. It is an amalgam of different information and allusions to the cultural discourse and the collective subconscious—a web of ritual, religion, eroticism, stories, voice, music, gestures, elegance, and attitude, which, bundled like a figurative sculpture, finds its channel onto the stage and into the space.

On 4 June 2023, the Kestner Gesellschaft will present a special version of Arias For A New World to celebrate the finissage of our first exhibition season. MJ HARPER was born in 1987 in Port Antonio, Jamaica. Harper has toured the world extensively with companies Alvin Ailey II and Company Wayne McGregor and has performed in museums such as The Serpentine Gallery (London), The Victoria and Albert Museum (London), MoMA (New York), and the Guggenheim (New York). Since moving to Berlin in 2015, Harper has performed at several venues in the city, including Blain|Southern, Souvenir By, and the Schinkel Pavillon. Harper has also performed with the Bavarian State Opera and the Komische Oper Berlin, and played a leading role in artist Leila Hekmat’s film CROCOPAZZO! (2020).

The performance Arias For A New World premiered digitally as apart of Berlin’s Reference Festival in 2021 and in 2022 after a residency at Callie’s Berlin, premie- red at The Berliner Ensemble. Parallel to Harpers solo performance work, Harper works quite extensively within the fashion industry, working closely with designers such as Stefano Pilati, Grace Wales Bonner and Edward Buchanan, where Harper uses movement to inform creative direction as well as movement direction. Harper sees this multidisciplinary approach to creating, as a continuous exercise in world building.

Curator: Robert Knoke