Black Flags

William Forsythe
1949, New York, NY (US) – Frankfurt am Main (DE)

Robots, flags
Courtesy of the artist

Programing: Sven Thöne
Technical Realisation: Max Schubert
Producer: Julian Gabriel Richter

In Cooperation with Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, SKD
Mit freundlicher Unterstützung von KUKA Roboter

Dresden, Kunsthalle im Lipsiusbau, SKD, 2014
Paris, Gagosian Gallery - Le Bourget, 2017

In the ‘white cube’ of the Kunsthalle in the Lipsiusbau, two industrial robots wave enormous black flags. Accompanied by the operating noise of the robots, their continuous movements leave spectators without a place to rest their gaze, removing any steady reference point in the space. The waving flags translate the digital algorithm that controls the robots into a series of gestural movements in space that appear controlled, unpredictable, weightless, and measured at one and the same time.