Paraphrase

Choreographic Intervention
William Forsythe, 2022
April 2., 2022,  Punta della Dogana, Pinault Collection, Venice

The choreography, Paraphrase (2022), is performed directly adjacent to two Nauman works currently on exhibition: Diagonal Sound Wall (Acoustic Wall), 1970 and Acoustic Wedge (Mirrored), 2020, both of which significantly subtract acoustic information from the environment. Paraphrase asks a hearing-enabled translator (a person embedded in the community of those possessing a wide spectrum of hearing capacities) to communicate, strictly with Sign Language (ISL), their own experience and perceived significance of Nauman’s sound-dampening acoustic work vis a vis visitors who might not have full access to his acoustic subject. On the other hand, those visitors who lack fluency in Sign Language will not have access to the information offered by the performer, whose full experience is encoded in the gestures of their language.