Anthropologies Imaginaires
This paper discusses the critical, satirical and ethical dimension of Anthropologies imaginaires (Imaginary Anthropologies), a vocal, musical and theatrical live-arts piece I created in 2014 and performed publicly in around twenty events. Alone on stage with the support of a documentary-style video projection, I sing eleven vocalizations that seemingly belong to unknown populations, whose fictional nature will be gradually revealed. The use of my voice is partially inspired by existing vocal traditions but blurred and distorted through my own self-developed experimental voice techniques. The interplay between these songs of Otherness and the increasingly problematic commentary of the five onscreen fake experts addresses current issues linked to coloniality, post-exoticism, cultural extinction, globalization, normalized racism and cultural appropriation. As a contemporary sound artist belonging to our cultural diversity, I analyze how I can use my voice, body and satire to formulate a critique of colonialism to an audience with mostly Eurocentric cultural references.