In cooperation with the ImPulsTanz Festival, the MAK brings movement into the museum summer
Vienna (OTS) – In cooperation with ImPulsTanz – Vienna International Dance Festival, the MAK will be the venue for an extraordinary exhibition by the renowned choreographer William Forsythe this summer. At the center of the course in the lower MAK exhibition hall is the installation “Nowhere and Everywhere at the Same Time, No. 2”, consisting of hundreds of swinging pendulums, which puts the visitors’ bodies in relation to the exhibition space. The ImPulsTanz Festival 2024 will open on Thursday, July 11, 2024, at 8 p.m. with the exhibition “WILLIAM FORSYTHE: Choreographic Objects” officially opened in the MAK.
Since 1984, ImPulsTanz has developed into what is now Europe’s largest festival for contemporary dance and performance. For almost ten years, ImPulsTanz has been enriching its program with synergies with the visual arts, thereby opening up the boundaries between performing and visual artistic expressions. This summer, the festival will be visiting the MAK for the first time.
The MAK is delighted to be working with William Forsythe, one of the most influential choreographers of our time, on the initiative of ImPulsTanz. Few have had such a lasting impact on the world of contemporary dance and ballet as Forsythe has over the past 50 years. With his dance works, the American choreographer freed the practice of ballet from its identification with the classical repertoire and transformed it into a dynamic art form of the 21st century. In addition to his activities as director of the Frankfurt Ballet and founder and director of the ballet company The Forsythe Company, since 1989 he has also been developing “Choreographic Objects” that are shown at international art biennials and in museums.
ImPulsTanz and the MAK celebrate Forsythe’s inexhaustible curiosity and interest in the fundamental choreographic principles that shape the world.
Four works by the artist are on display in the MAK exhibition hall on around 1,500 m2 – neben “Nowhere and Everywhere at the Same Time, Nr. 2” also “City of Abstracts” (2001), “Putting one foot in front of the other” (2019) und “Attempt to walk without a rhythm” (2023). This “Choreographic Objects” cannot be understood solely by looking at them. Only the reaction and the resulting movement of the audience create a comprehensive overall choreography that transcends genre boundaries and completes the work.
“With the William Forsythe exhibition, the movement of the ImPulsTanz Festival will also spill over to the MAK. William Forsythe’s “Choreographic Objects” are an enrichment of our program; their participatory approach harmonizes in a special way with the interdisciplinary narrative of the MAK and the special accessibility of this house for our audience,” says Lilli Hollein, General Director and Scientific Director of the MAK.
About the works shown
The centrepiece of the exhibition is the spatial installation “Nowhere and Everywhere at the Same Time, No. 2” (2013). Visitors are invited to enter the installation and move around in the pendulum field. While they try to anticipate the unpredictable movements of the pendulums and avoid contact with them, their bodies move in their own choreographies. The resulting overall composition shows how we organize our environment, but are also organized by it. The installation takes up two central themes in Forsythe’s work: counterpoint and the unconscious choreographic competence that can arise from choreographic situations.
“City of Abstracts” (2001) is an LED video wall that visitors walk towards through a long corridor. Their movements are recorded and projected in a distorted way. Through their own observation, visitors explore their movements and their role in image production, which leads to surprising, unintentional and unconscious choreographies through experimentation.
The installation “Putting one foot in front of the other” (2019) consists of numerous concrete instructions that are carried out step by step by visitors over a length of 20 meters.
“Attempt to walk without a rhythm” (2023) is an invitation to visitors to fight against the primal impulse of regular patterns of tempo and rhythm when walking.
William Forsythe
William Forsythe (born 1949 in New York) trained as a dancer in Florida. He danced with the Joffrey Ballet and later with the Stuttgart Ballet, where he was also the resident choreographer. From 1984, he worked for two decades as director of the Frankfurt Ballet and then established the independent Forsythe Company, which he directed until 2015.
Since then, Forsythe has worked as a freelance choreographer and has created new stage works for various ballet companies, including the Paris Opera Ballet, the English National Ballet, the Boston Ballet and the Ballet Teatro alla Scala. His choreographies have found their place in the repertoire of ballet companies worldwide.
Since the 1990s, Forsythe has been developing architectural, performative and filmic installations. These “Choreographic Objects” have been shown in the most prestigious museums and exhibitions worldwide, including the Whitney Biennial (New York, 1997), the Louvre (Paris, 2006), the Pinakothek der Moderne (Munich, 2006), the Tate Modern (London, 2009), the MoMA (New York, 2010), the Venice Biennale (2005, 2009, 2012, 2014), the MMK – Museum für Moderne Kunst Frankfurt (2015), the 20th Sydney Biennale (2016), the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (2020) and the Kunsthaus Zürich (2021).
William Forsythe has received numerous prizes and awards, including the Golden Lion for his lifetime achievement at the Venice Biennale 2010, the German theater prize DER FAUST and the prestigious Kyoto Prize 2024 for Arts and Philosophy.
Press photos are available for download at MAK.at/presse.
A cooperation between ImPulsTanz – Vienna International Dance Festival and MAK – Museum of Applied Arts
Press tour
Thursday, 11.7.2024, 5 p.m.
Please register at presse@MAK.at
opening
Thursday, 11.7.2024, 8 p.m.
Free admission to the exhibition opening
Exhibition venue
Lower MAK Exhibition Hall
MAK, Stubenring 5, 1010 Vienna
Exhibition duration
11.7.–18.8.2024
opening hours
Tue 10am-9pm, Wed to Sun 10am-6pm
Coordinator
Antje Prisker, MAK Special Projects
MAK Entrance
€ 16.50/15.50*; reduced € 13.50/12.50*; every Tuesday 6pm–9pm: admission € 8/7.50*
Free admission for children and young people under 19
* Ticket price in online presale
Inquiries & Contact:
MAK Press and Public Relations
Judith Anna Schwarz-Jungmann (Head)
Sandra Hell-Ghignone, Yasmin Yazdian
T: +43 1 711 36-213, -212, -210
presse@MAK.at
MAK.at
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