Olivier Salvas Artiste presents Disco Nap
With Disco Nap, I want to show a response to the hate in the world but specifically towards the members of the 2SLGBTQIA+ community. As an artistic answer, I created a pro-peace project where I was inspired by the bed-in by John Lennon and Yoko Ono, but I dressed as John Travolta from Saturday Night Fever as a metaphor for “Disco Nap”, a term usually used in queer culture (and others ) as a time to get ready for a night out at the club.
The idea of a disco club originated out of the New York clubs that were dedicated to specific dance moves, like the Watutsi and the Twist. The dance-focused clubs became very popular among the queer community because, for short periods of time, people of the same sex were allowed to openly dance with each other.This time saw queer people participating openly in nightlife in a way that had not been seen in decades. The club was a crucial place for queer people to meet as a safe space and most riots in queer history are connected to bars. The club was the safe space for 2SLGBTQIA+ people as being themselves on the streets was too dangerous.The club is a metaphor here for safe spaces today (e.g. schools) an the threat to loose them due to politics if we do not act and take action.
That’s where the Bed-In aspect comes in: a protest for love, merging the ideologies of the disco with the riots as a way to appropriate a queer perspective to the Lennon/Ono pacifist riot with the Saturday Night fever outfit. Heels have been added instead of shoes to echo the hate drag artists and trans people have been getting in the anti-SOGI protests in schools and in drag queen story times.
As my own riot, I decided to remove the colours from the abstracts paintings and to focus on white. White echoes dreams and peace. Disco Nap for me is a time to stop, take a break from the chaos in the world and find peace. It’s about listening to others and educating ourselves. It’s about peace. When facing the disco nap paintings, participants are facing a sea of clouds.
On the walls, you will also find protest signs with contemporary issues, as well as digital art of key queer militants in history. There will also be projections of queer protests.
In the show, there is also pro-peace interactive pieces, where people can contribute by writing their own pro-peace signs or by contributing to a collective painting.
The goal of this show is to reflect on the importance of safe spaces, and the fragility of safe spaces. It is meant to help make a statement of love and of empathy: it is meant to allow us to question: during protests or counter protests in the last year, did we forget to listen to one another?
Disco Nap runs until March 15th, 2024 at Bean on Hastings Gallery 175 W Hastings Vancouver, BC
