About the Performance

The MCA is pleased to present The Rite (2018) by Brendan Fernandes, as part of City in a Garden: Queer Art and Activism, which is going to be activated on six occasions throughout the run of the exhibition. Inspired by Igor Stravinsky’s historic 1913 ballet, The Rite of Spring, and poses that Fernandes learned as a trainee at the Martha Graham Dance Company, this hour-long durational performance features dancers Laura Baumeister and Katlin Bourgeois, who activate the artwork’s sculptural cage and rocking chairs while improvising within the parameters of Fernandes’s choreography.

Situated within the “Club” section of City in a Garden: Queer Art and Activism, Fernandes notes similarities between his choreographed installations, BDSM culture, and ballet culture, saying that each practice places “an emphasis on trust and confidence within a space where roles of mastery and submission are in play.”

About the Artists

Brendan Fernandes (b. 1979, Nairobi, Kenya) is an internationally recognized Canadian artist working at the intersection of dance and visual arts. Currently based in Chicago, his practice addresses issues of race, queer culture, migration, protest, and other forms of collective movement. Constantly seeking to create new spaces and forms of agency, Fernandes’s work often takes on hybrid forms: part ballet, part queer dance party, part political protest always rooted in collaboration and fostering solidarity. Fernandes is a graduate of the Whitney Independent Study Program (2007) and has been the recipient of numerous awards, including a Robert Rauschenberg Residency Fellowship (2014), a Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship (2020), an Artadia Award (2019), a Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Grant (2019), and most recently, the Platform Award (2024). In 2024, he was also honored with the Creative Voice Award by Arts Alliance Illinois. His work has been presented at prestigious venues such as the 2019 Whitney Biennial at the Whitney Museum of American Art (New York), the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago (Chicago), the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (New York), the Museum of Modern Art (New York), the J. Paul Getty Museum (Los Angeles), the National Gallery of Canada (Ottawa), and the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal (MAC), among many others. Fernandes is an Associate Professor in the Department of Art, Theory, and Practice at Northwestern University. He is represented by Monique Meloche Gallery in Chicago and Susan Inglett Gallery in New York. Recent and upcoming projects include performances and solo presentations at the Pulitzer Arts Foundation (St. Louis, MO), the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver (Denver, CO), the Fabric Workshop and Museum (Philadelphia, PA), and Prospect.6 (New Orleans, LA). In spring 2026, a major new commission and solo exhibition will debut at the Driehaus Museum in Chicago.

Katlin Michael Bourgeois (they/them) began dancing in their hometown of Gonzales, Louisiana. They graduated from Alonzo King LINES Ballet Training Program in 2014 and began a dancing career that allowed them to dance with Dance Theatre of San Francisco, DanceWorks Chicago, FLOCK Works, Hubbard Street 2, M/Motions, The Cambrians, and others. Bourgeois started their own project dance company, “Ensemble180,” in 2018 and has been an active performer, choreographer, and educator internationally for almost a decade. In 2022 they spearheaded and took leadership of the Contemporary Ballet Trainee Program at The Grainger Academy of The Joffrey Ballet, and in 2023 was named “Best Emerging Voice in Dance” by Chicago Magazine. Bourgeois brings a unique perspective and approach to the dance field, and a philosophy that taps into rigor, technical prowess, creativity, and a love for dance.

Laura Baumeister (they, she) is a freelance movement artist based in Chicago, with a BFA in Modern Dance from The University of Utah. They have dedicated much of their independent work to improvisational studies in composing movement from a base of imagery, sound scores, environment, and deep feeling. Most recently, Baumeister completed a show run of a 75-minute piece called GRIT at Steppenwolf Theatre, created by Maggie Vannucci in collaboration with dancers. This work explored stamina, reliance, resilience, and exhaustion through improvisational prompting. Baumeister is committed to play and laughter as being integral to any creative process and finds great joy in taking absurdity very seriously.