Fanny De Chaillé, “The Disorder of Discourse”

Fanny de Chaillé delivers a free, public lecture as part of the Intra-Disciplinary Seminar series. Because of the radical nature of his work, Michel Foucault’s 1969 appointment to a chair at the prestigious Collège de France was a watershed moment in French intellectual life. With actor Guillaume Bailliart, Fanny de Chaillé proposes a restaging of his inaugural lecture –L’Ordre du discours (The Order of Discourse)–, which was later published as a book but never recorded. In doing so, she re-imagines a historical moment while continuing Foucault’s investigation of the relations between power and language.

Dancer, choreographer, and theater director Fanny de Chaillé likes to separate text from movement, allowing the two modes of expression to rediscover each other and work within the context of that separation. After studying aesthetics at the Sorbonne, Fanny de Chaillé worked with Daniel Larrieu at the Centre chorégraphique national in Tours, France, where she collaborated with Rachid Ouramdane, and participated in projects by artists Thomas Hirschhorn and Pierre Huyghe. Beginning in 1995, she has created her own installations and performances, while continuing a rich series of collaborations, in particular with writer Pierre Alferi.

This will be the US premiere of Fanny de Chaillé’s “‘The Disorder of Discourse,” presented in collaboration with Crossing the Line Festival and the Invisible Dog Art Center. The work will also be performed a second time, on Wednesday, September 18th.

The Fall 2019 IDS Lecture Series at The Cooper Union is organized by Leslie Hewitt and Omar Berrada. The IDS Public Lecture Series is part of the Robert Lehman Visiting Artist Program at The Cooper Union. We are grateful for major funding and support from the Robert Lehman Foundation for the series. The IDS Public Lecture Series is also made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.