Valeska Soares – Folly, 2022

For the 16th Lyon Biennale, Valeska Soares has conceived a new version of her immersive installation Folly for a pavilion that was designed by Lyon architect Tony Garnier as part of the 1914 International Exhibition. Upon stepping into the pavilion, visitors are enveloped in a mirror-clad interior where a video projection on one wall is reflected and multiplied on several walls. Filmed inside the Oscar Niemeyer designed nightclub of a former casino in Pampulha, Belo Horizonte, the video Tonight (2002), portrays semitransparent figures, arms raised to embrace and slowdance with absent partners. The accompanying soundtrack by the Belo Horizonte sound artists O Grivo is a remix of Dusty Springfield’s rendition of Burt Bacharach and Hal David’s 1967 song “The Look of Love.” Inserted into the scene, viewers are surrounded by the dance, overlaying and intermingling with the figures as they approach and withdraw, the myriad reflections generating a vast crowd upon an infinite dance floor.