Kirsten Leenaars

Boulevard Dreamers is a traveling installation and variety show responding to the specific narratives and communities of the sites and venues it visits. This collaborative project by artists Lise Haller Baggesen and Kirsten Leenaars consists of three parts: a site-specific stage set, a series of performances, and an installation of the growing collection of portraits of the Boulevard Dreamers performers. Boulevard Dreamers questions and celebrates the production of self in a society dominated by one spectacle alone: desire. Through a little glamour, a little glitter, and with a little help from their friends, Baggesen and Leenaars explore how we are moved by the agency of desire and the magical allure of being in the spotlight. The first iteration was held at The Franklin, other iterations followed at the Museum of Contemporary, the Poetry Foundation in Chicago and the Art Institute of Chicago.

 

In a collaborative work created for the Franklin they investigate the ways in which cultural practices and the media stage their subjects and thus form positions for their audiences. Performances from different disciplines and neighborhoods throughout Chicago are participating during opening night, performers at the Franklin included: Re-birth, Marvin Tate, Najwa Dance Corps, Dan Sullivan, Anni Holm, Dasha Filippova, In The Spirit: Zahra Baker & Emily Lansana, Jim Dorling, Plain White Tom, Michael Soto & Madeleine Aguilar