about
In response to the Paris attacks in 2015 and artist Camille Moravia's social media message "il va falloir beaucoup beaucoup beaucoup d'amour" (it's going to take a lot a lot a lot of love) longtime friends and fellow artists, Abigail Boucher and Carolyn Defrin started audio-recording stories of important kisses with friends and family around dinner tables in their home cities of Paris, London and Chicago.
Listening back to the audio-recordings they understood these kisses connected to a sense of shared humanity and to a critical compassion for each other's unique and different life experiences.
The stories have gone on to inspire an original theatre production (Kissing Rebellion) and an accompanying installation (One hundred thousand kisses) with new projects currently in development.
In pursuit of
morelove lesshate
the kissing project aims to
elevate our shared humanity and celebrate our exquisite differences one kiss at a time.
kissing_project
is
abigail boucher, co-founder
Abigail is a queer Franco-American director, writer and performer across theatre and film based in Los Angeles. Prior to moving out West, she lived and worked n Chicago (where she met Carolyn), and spent several years back home in Paris, where she trained in Theatre of the Oppressed. She is particularly interested in women and queer-driven narratives, as well as creating work that brings more joy and love into the world.
carolyn defrin, co-founder
Carolyn is an American artist, researcher and educator living in the UK. With an early career in Chicago theatre (where she met Abigail) she is now based in London creating work at the intersection of art and community development. Current projects are focused on migration, inter-generational connection and relationships between nature, care and feminism. She is a newly appointed doctor of philosophy and looks forward to prescribing art relentlessly.
kristina feliciano, creative producer
Kristina Feliciano is a Los Angeles-based writer and artist with a persistent humanist streak and a permanent case of curiosity-propelled wanderlust. She makes imagery and experimental shorts under the name Chronic Chronicler.
collaborative artists
Brock Alter
Tom McDowell
Fanis Sakellariou
Ashleigh Bowmott
Connor Bowmott
Joe Hornsby
Matthew Ryding
Juliette Tellier
Vic Wynter
Patrick Andrews
Abu Ansari
Oliver LeClaire
Manjushri Jones
Yemurai Zvaraya
Karen Callaghan
Luke Elliot
Ariella Kasmer-Jacobs
Jalen Rios
Alex King
Esteban Cruz