Today, July 22nd, 2026, Hart Lëshkina presents Boy World Effigy II at Dover Street Market Paris, where it will remain on view through July 26th. The four-channel video installation fills the gallery with a striking interplay of moving image and eight-channel sound, drawing viewers into a world where ritual, performance, and collective identity intersect.
A choir becomes a portrait of discipline, belonging, and resistance
At the centre of Boy World Effigy II is Herning Kirkes Drengekor, one of Denmark’s oldest boys’ choirs, serving as both protagonist and symbol. Rather than documenting the ensemble, Lëshkina uses its rituals to examine how institutions shape identity through discipline, repetition, and shared performance. Rehearsals and concerts are interwoven with carefully staged scenes from the choristers’ daily lives, while actors quietly merge into the group, blurring the distinction between lived experience and constructed narrative.
Across four synchronised screens, measured choreography, choral voices, and ceremonial gestures are punctuated by hesitation, subtle defiance, and moments of quiet discord. These interruptions expose the delicate balance between individual will and collective order, prompting viewers to consider where conformity gives way to self-expression.
Based between Paris and Los Angeles, Hart Lëshkina works across photography, film, installation, and mixed media, investigating systems of power, constructed realities, and the visual codes that shape contemporary life. In Boy World Effigy II, these concerns converge in a powerful reflection on belonging—as both a source of solidarity and an instrument of control. The installation lingers in the space between harmony and coercion, asking how collective structures continue to shape personal identity.
HART LËSHKINA
Boy World Effigy II, 2025
