French Poorformance

Two French performance artists’ nudity, simulated violence and sex acts, and use of faux-urine and feces, shocked the crowd and even the promoter at Dahl Arts Center on Wednesday.

 

After stripping off their grubby clothes, the pair gobbled potato chips and spit them on the crowd, vomited into a filthy commode and threw around fake feces and urine before being shut down about a half hour into what was to be a 45-minute performance.

 

Costes, a French performance art duo consisting of one 50-something man, Jean-Louis Costes, and a 20-something woman, Lisou Prout, were the fourth act of five scheduled to perform Wednesday at the Dahl.

 

The act consisted of choreography, singing, spoken word and acting set to a prerecorded soundtrack of loud music, noise and discordant sounds. It was all in French, but people who saw it said it was basically a depiction of American life from birth to death, portrayed in the most extreme way possible.

There were also plenty of “props.”

 

The last straw, apparently, was a simulated sex act involving a carrot.

 

Audience member Ben Lemay said he can safely say he has never seen anything like it in Rapid City, or anyplace in the Midwest for that matter.

 

“It was pretty much a show centered on shock value,” he said.

 

Lemay said the symbolism was blatant and not difficult to miss as the duo tackled subjects such as drug addiction, sex, abortion, war and suicide — essentially, the darker side of life.

 

“For me, I think they got their point across, but I think for most people, they were either completely shocked or disgusted,” he said. “You didn’t have to search that hard for what they were trying to get across. But a lot of people were just too shocked to even go into that.”

 

Promoter Kevin Dorsman, who rented the Dahl for the performance, knew little about the group before it performed and was apologetic about the performance.

 

“I was told they were performance artists from France and were highly recommended; I think I was told wrong,” he said. “I was a bit taken aback and blindsided.”

 

Dorsman said he basically found a space for Costes to perform as part of Wednesday’s show featuring four other bands at the recommendation of a friend from Minneapolis.

 

It wasn’t long after Costes started that Dorsman realized he needed to pull the plug.