Kirili in Dialogue with
Leena Conquest
American singer-songwriter and Jazz vocalist
Alain Kirili and Leena Conquest, with Solo , 1995
(photo©Ariane Lopez-Huici)
“ La possibilité de me déplacer à travers des sculptures me passionne!
Chanter et danser avec des œuvres d’art m’a ouverte sur de nouvelles perspectives artistiques. Aujourd’hui, lorsque je regarde une œuvre d’art comme la tienne, je suis sensible à son mouvement, sa forme, son poids, sa couleur, sa texture et l’espace qu’elle définit. Je découvre des moyens d’interaction avec elle et deviens partie prenante et intégrante de son univers artistique. Une intuition et des vibrations sont provoquées par les œuvres elles-mêmes. Un dialogue s’établit entre mon histoire et celle de tes sculptures. Se créée aussi cette dynamique abstraite qui surgit de l’improvisation : l’intangible émerge, est exploré et bienvenu. Célébrations ! ”
Leena Conquest
Sculptures, Jazz et Improvisations, Magazine Fusées 10, 2006
Daniel Carter and Leena Conquest in Celestial Alphabet by Alain Kirili, White Street, 1997
(photo©Ariane Lopez-Huici)
Wilber Morris, LeenaConquest & Malina, White Street, 1997
(photo©Ariane Lopez-Huici)
Leena Conquest and William Parker
in Un coups de dés jamais n’abolira la sculpture by Alain Kirili, White Street, 2005
(photo©Ariane Lopez-Huici)
Autour des Commandements d’Alain Kirili
Music Album published in the Catalogue made by the Musée de Grenoble, 1999
with the participation of Joseph Jarman, William Parker, Daniel Carter,
Leena Conquest, Roy Campbell Jr, Sabir Mateen, Thomas Buckner
Roy Campbell , Leena Conquest and Maria Mitchell with the sculpture The Letter at the White Street Loft, 1999)
Daniel Carter, Leena Conquest and Sabir Mateen with the sculpture Levitation at the White Street Loft, 2003
(photos©Ariane Lopez-Huici)
Leena Conquest & Daniel Carter with the sculpture Nataraja , at the White Street Loft, 2008
(photo © Ariane Lopez-Huici)
“ Un saxophoniste, un clarinettiste par le souffle nous font découvrir les vibrations qu’ils développent sur les sculptures. Les musiciens en se rapprochant des sculptures créent des vibrations différentes. Je suis très content que dans mes expositions Leena Conquest danse et chante au milieu de mes Commandements avec William Parker à la contrebasse, et Daniel Carter au saxophone et flûte. ”
Alain Kirili
La sonorité de la sculpture, Entretien avec Charlotta Kotik, le 20 novembre 1997, à New York.
Extrait du catalogue de l’exposition Alain Kirili Sculptures à la galerie Marlborough Chelsea, New York, 1998.
Leena Conquest & Daniel Carter in Alain Kirili’s exhibition Drawing In Space , Arthelix Gallery, Brooklyn, 2014
(photos & videos ©Marilia Destot)
A Tribute to Alain Kirili
a Brooklyn Rail online panel discussion
moderated by Phong H. Bui
featuring Leena Conquest, Francis Greenburger, Maria Mitchell, Robert C. Morgan, Carter Ratcliff, Dorothea Rockburne, Rebecca Smith, Henry Threadgill and more, concluded with a poetry reading by Vincent Katz, October 2021
“ I will always remember the sound of Alain’s voice.
That will always stay with me, because he would say, “Oh…Leena!,” and he had such a vibration. When I first met Alain, it was with the drummer Sunny Murray, and we had done a recording with a group in Vienna. I was living in Vienna at the time, and we had done a recording that Alain heard called illuminations – the Reform Art Unit, which Sunny had worked with for many years. So, Alain heard the recording, and Sunny Murray – those of you who know Sunny, he was so effervescent – he said, “well you know, Leena! I want you to meet Alain, and you never know, there might be a connection there,” and so I said ok, and we went over, and I met Alain and Ariane, and they are so marvelous. And that’s his word! …Alain – that’s another word: “Marvelous! Marvelous!” When I speak of Alain, I hear his voice. So that led to other collaborations, and I’m so grateful for his grace and his openness, and also his embrace of uncertainty, because that’s improvisation. Sometimes I didn’t know exactly how to go, or how to move, but its that trust, its that exploration, and for me it was empowering and liberating; being in the space and the presence of Alain and Ariane was almost surreal sometimes. I said, wow! Just such special people, and – I love Ariane, I love Alain… ”
Leena Conquest
A Tribute to Alain Kirili, A live talk at the Brooklyn Rail, 2021
Improvisation by Leena Conquest, Daniel Carter and Roy Campbell, White Street Studio, New York, 2008