“Club Ark Eternal” is a short film, directed by Partel Oliva with original music by Lafawndah and BR-RR and movement direction by Ryan Heffington.

For the Spring-Summer 2017 season, KENZO pays homage to nightlife as a powerful source of alternative energies against racism, sexual oppression and class violence. Clubs as exemplars of progressive communities, crucibles of self-invention.

Carol Lim and Humberto Leon have made dance a KENZO staple, with recent events including Spike Jonze’s “KENZO World” ad and Jean-Paul Goude’s H&M x KENZO show. To introduce the new KENZO Resort 2017 and Men’s Spring-Summer 2017 collections, they commissioned a dance film from director duo Partel Oliva.

“Club Ark Eternal” is a tribute to club culture at a time of tragedy. With clubbing spaces obviously needing to be understood and protected, we tried to think of impossible alternatives. With many countries around the world entering a winter of the soul, we wanted to celebrate the kids who go out in 15°F/-2°C.

The movie captures the moment when people end up dancing alone, lost in themselves. Maybe they arrived a little early or maybe it’s 6am and the place is emptying. Maybe they withdrew from a packed dancefloor but kept on dancing to muffled music, on a balcony, in a hallway, in a kitchen.

The film is a series of solos, some deeply autotelic, some more open and willing to connect.  By bringing party lights into Franklin Canyon, the natural world is turned into a club. The presentation is as fitful and irregular as the dances freestyled by the performers and framed by Ryan Heffington. The dances are intended to repel personal or political demons. Dances that aim to seduce or destroy. Rituals of remembrance or oblivion.