Boys Just Want To Have Fun

Boys Just Want To Have Fun is a durational multi-disciplinary dance-performance act to be presented in white exhibition/gallery spaces. The work confronts the challenge of deconstructing the “man” and taboos around men’s sensuality and tactility in mainstream Western culture. The work does so by addressing power dynamics and hierarchies of social positioning in the visual art space (the gallery), politics of object and subject (presenting man as an object), questioning what a body is and how its utterances are informed by its process of becoming, as well as the practice of individual agency in a public space (both for the public and the performers).

In this project, objectification is utilised to examine the ‘man’ as an artwork, a creation, or fiction. We ask, how are men being “man-ified” and “man-ifactured” in our society?

The performative act is a durational score, a chain of solos which also includes moments of interaction amongst multiple performers from a cast of male presenting and identifying artists. The public will be actively invited to come and leave as they please, as well as choose their own spatial trajectory in the performance space, fostering a sense of active participation and engagement.

Since 2014, Aloni’s work has been addressing gender and sexuality in both direct and indirect ways. After numerous projects in which Aloni addressed these themes through non-binary and female perspectives.

In this project they attempt embodiments of post-humanist-feminist agenda through deconstruction and redefinition of ‘man’. 

Boys Just Want To Have Fun has been hosted for research residencies in Nau Ivanow in Barcelona in Spring 2023 and EIMA Creation Center in Mallorca in Fall 2023. The creation process took place in Summer- Fall of 2024 with a premier at Belgrade Pride Week, 1-3 September 2024. 

Boys Just Want to Have Fun has been selected by Perform Europe. During 2025, the performance will be on tour to the following places:

Forum Box, Helsinki
14.7.-3.8. 2025 (performances: 31.7.-2.8.)

Tou Scene, Stavanger
13.9.-28.9. 2025 (performances 25.-27.9.)

United Cowboys Art House, Eindhoven
/ part of Dutch Design Week
14.-26.10. 2025 (performances 23.-25.10.)

KHIDI Club, presented by Circe Platform, Tbilisi
3.-16.11. 2025 (performances 13.-15.11.)

The durational, multidisciplinary work will be presented over 3-4 days at each of the locations. Each presentation series will be preceded by a 10-day adaptation period, inviting local artists, LGBTQIA+ organisations and the general public to open rehearsals, artist talks, and workshops. This will provide an opportunity to experience part of the creative process, actively contribute to the local adaptation of the piece, and offer a platform for transcultural exchange.

More info on the Perform Europe webpage.

Photo credits: Nata Korenovskaia