Battle Royal 2010

On Saturday, October 4th, 2009, 20 men entered Toronto's bus depot to step into a 17' steel cage. Shaun 'El Conquistador' Leonardo (artist and trained fighter) along with 19 of Canada's elite pro-wrestlers fought blindfolded until only one man was left standing.

The match, featured at this year's Nuit Blanche festival and inspired by Ralph Ellison's The Invisible Man, was an intense, theatrical recreation of the book's opening scene also entitled Battle Royal. Occupying a space between literary representation, wrestling spectacle and art performance Battle Royal was a vicious, unscripted event hearkening back to the actual fight to-the-end bouts African Americans were encouraged to enter for prize winnings during post-slavery American South; while manifesting the artist's own investigations of masculinity and identity.

Produced by Brad L Cooper

Category:

Sports

Tags:

• Art
• Performance
• Wrestling
• Steel Cage
• Shaun El C. Leonardo