marytwo is happy to present Claudia Bitrán’s first solo exhibition in Switzerland titled Broken over the top, curated by Kathy Battista.
‘Broken over the top’ is an expression coined by the celebrated American choreographer Brian Friedman, who has created iconic music videos for acts including Britney Spears, Cher, Mariah Carey and Beyonce, as well as for reality television shows such as X Factor in the UK. The phrase is used to indicate a hand position—broken meaning bent forward—and typically placed above the head. This pose indicates a second of syncopation, a brief halt in what otherwise would be fluid movement. Occurring at breaking points in the music or moments of repetition, this pose is often combined with hair flips or dancers turning their gazes towards the audience.
Claudia Bitrán, born 1986, is an artist who lives and works in New York. At marytwo she shows twenty-four charcoal and pastel drawings focused on young dancers seen in moments of maximum, heightened emotion. Most of the artist’s subjects are Instagram celebrities or students of Friedman. Bitrán focuses on contemporary subjects, yet she references a long history of punctuated movement including Bernini’s Ecstasy of St Teresa (1647–52); Jean-Léon Gérôme’s Pygmalion et Galatée (1890); the mid-nineteenth-century photographs of Charcot’s psychiatric patients; the ballroom Vogue dance craze that brought queer black culture to the forefront; the jumpy editing of film trailers; the rhythms of dubstep and trap music; and the most vulnerable of human actions, such as coughing, vomiting, or fainting.
Claudia Bitrán
Dancers 12, 2023
Pastel and charcoal on paper, acrylic painted frame
60 × 75 cm
Claudia Bitrán
Dancers 11 / 10, 2023
Pastel and charcoal on paper, acrylic painted frames
Both 60 × 75 cm
Claudia Bitrán
Dancers 11 (detail), 2023
Pastel and charcoal on paper, acrylic painted frame
60 × 75 cm
Claudia Bitrán
Dancers 22, 2023
Pastel and charcoal on paper, acrylic painted frame
30 × 24 cm
Claudia Bitrán
Dancers 05, 2023
Pastel and charcoal on paper, acrylic painted frame
40 × 60 cm
Claudia Bitrán
Dancers 01, 2023
Pastel and charcoal on paper, acrylic painted frame
40 × 30 cm
Claudia Bitrán
Dancers 23, 2023
Pastel and charcoal on paper, acrylic painted frame
30 × 24 cm
Claudia Bitrán
Dancers 02, 2023
Pastel and charcoal on paper, acrylic painted frame
40 × 50 cm
Claudia Bitrán
Dancers 03, 2023
Pastel and charcoal on paper, acrylic painted frame
40 × 50 cm
Claudia Bitrán
Dancers 04, 2023
Pastel and charcoal on paper, acrylic painted frame
40 × 50 cm
Claudia Bitrán
Dancers 24, 2023
Pastel and charcoal on paper, acrylic painted frame
30 × 24 cm
Claudia Bitrán
Dancers 25, 2023
Pastel and charcoal on paper, acrylic painted frame
30 × 24 cm
Claudia Bitrán
Dancers 13, 2023
Pastel and charcoal on paper, acrylic painted frame
75 × 60 cm
Claudia Bitrán
Dancers 13 (detail), 2023
Pastel and charcoal on paper, acrylic painted frame
75 × 60 cm
Claudia Bitrán
Dancers 20, 2023
Pastel and charcoal on paper, acrylic painted frame
75 × 60 cm
Claudia Bitrán
Dancers 20 (detail), 2023
Pastel and charcoal on paper, acrylic painted frame
75 × 60 cm
Claudia Bitrán
Dancers 16, 2023
Pastel and charcoal on paper, acrylic painted frame
75 × 60 cm
Claudia Bitrán
Dancers 19, 2023
Pastel and charcoal on paper, acrylic painted frame
75 × 60 cm
Claudia Bitrán
Dancers 14, 2023
Pastel and charcoal on paper, acrylic painted frame
75 × 60 cm
Claudia Bitrán
Dancers 15, 2023
Pastel and charcoal on paper, acrylic painted frame
75 × 60 cm
Claudia Bitrán
Dancers 17, 2023
Pastel and charcoal on paper, acrylic painted frame
75 × 60 cm
Claudia Bitrán
Dancers 18, 2023
Pastel and charcoal on paper, acrylic painted frame
75 × 60 cm
Claudia Bitrán
Dancers 09, 2023
Pastel and charcoal on paper, acrylic painted frame
40 × 30 cm
Claudia Bitrán
Dancers 06, 2023
Pastel and charcoal on paper, acrylic painted frame
40 × 60 cm
Claudia Bitrán
Dancers 08, 2023
Pastel and charcoal on paper, acrylic painted frame
30 × 20 cm
