Nowhere and Everywhere

MUSEUM FOLKWANG

Exhibition period: August 24. – September 08., 2013

> NOWHERE AND EVERYWHERE AT THE SAME TIME, N°2
> CITY OF ABSTRACTS
> SOLO
> LECTURES FROM IMPROVISATION TECHNOLOGIES

The American choreographer William Forsythe is the first artist to utilize the entire space available in the Große Halle in the new building for the Museum Folkwang designed by David Chipperfield. The Ruhrtriennale realisation of Nowhere and Everywhere at the Same Time No. 2 marks an entirely new chapter in the development of this choreographic work. Originally created for a solo dancer and 40 pendulums in an abandoned building on New Yorks historic High Line, the installation has been continuously developed in contexts as diverse as the monumental industrial architecture of the Turbine Hall of the Tate Modern, and the historical setting provided by the Arsenale of the Venice Biennale. This new edition preserves and privileges two central interests in Forsythe's oeuvre: counterpoint and the unconscious choreographic competence induced by choreographic situations. Suspended from automated grids, more than 400 pendulums are activated to initiate a sweeping 15 part counterpoint of tempi, spacial juxtaposition and gradients of centrifugal force which offers the spectator a constantly morphing labyrinth of significant complexity. The spectators are free to attempt a navigation this statistically unpredictable environment, but are requested to avoid coming in contact with any of the swinging pendulums. This task, which automatically initiates and alerts the spectators innate predictive faculties, produces a lively choreography of manifold and intricate avoidance strategies. In the interactive video work City of Abstracts, the visitors are drawn into a mael-strom of twirling shapes, unexpectedly becoming participants in the action. William Forsythe has shaped contemporary dance in a unique way. His works have kept the practice of ballet from being solely identified with the classical realm, transforming it into a dynamic art form of the twenty-first century. But his artistic practice also includes performance, film, installations, choreographic objects and internet-based education. Forsythe will also present a selection from his Lectures from Improvisation Technologies – a collection of 60 film studies which contains the most important principles of his language of movement and his art of improvisation, including the film Solo, a rare opportunity to see Forsythe as a dancer.