Leeum Museum of Art presents A Portrait by Pauline Boudry / Renate Lorenz, a new commission for the lobby’s Media Wall. The film features eight choreographers, artists, and musicians. Each enters the scene against the backdrop of a giant black faux leather curtain, arriving at a simple chair to perform a portrait. The artists experiment with ways of appearing in front of a camera. Do we see a person performing feelings, or do we see a performer's personal feelings? Do we see a person’s gestures or a performer’s movements? Mobilizing lessons from queer underground performances, the (in)visibilities of these portraits undermine the distinction between performing and being, between props and bodies. Glamorous and vulnerable, silent yet unapologetic, the individual portraits show a glimpse of a radical difference that resists description. 

Shown on an LED screen with an outstanding presence at the museum’s lobby, the majestic curtain—Curtain Piece (Disobedient) (2023)—not only is a background and a sculptural work from the video but also renders the lobby space into a temporary and conceptual stage. The film draws the audience into a precarious terrain where different modes of being—simply being present on site, engaging in the work, themselves becoming performers—coincide.