Simone Forti
26 May - 30 Jun 2012
SIMONE FORTI
News Animations
26 May - 30 June 2012
Ellen de Bruijne Projects proudly presents the work of Los Angeles based artist Simone Forti. By many regarded as one of the key figures in postmodern dance, Forti prefers to be referred to as a movement artist. By improvising she explores pure movement and its relation to the mind, in her latest work enriched by language as one of her central interests. Her work links linguistics to movement by translating the word into gesture and speech into choreography.
According to Simone Forti improvisation can never be purely natural and spontaneous as it will always be influenced by the dancers’ personal style or desire to express. By using only movements of everyday life, she aims to objectify improvisation. These movements are strengthened by the ephemeral character of her choreographies due to their truly improvisational core.
In News Animations the news becomes the choreographer, determining Forti’s movements and speech. This seemingly infinite series of performances started as an attempt to fully comprehend the news through improvisations. Moving and speaking became a method of inquiry and social commentary, implementing all words that come to mind. These words arise from questions, feelings and speculations about the world brought to us by the news. Also incorporated in Forti’s drawings, the artist has found a way to practice improvisation in the two-dimensional as well. Thought becomes movement becomes line becomes word.
Simone Forti (IT, 1935) is a dancer/choreographer /writer. After her studies and apprenticeship with Anna Halprin, she studied composition at Merce Cunningham Studios. Here she started working with choreographers like Trisha Brown, Yvonne Rainer, and Steve Paxton. Forti went on to be a pivotal figure in the Judson Dance Theater community. Over the years her work has evolved from her early Dance Constructions, through her animal movement studies and News Animations, an improvisational dance narrative form wherein movement and language spontaneously weave together. In 2005 Forti received the Guggenheim Fellowship and currently she’s teaching improvisation at UCLA.
Throughout the years, writing has been part of Forti’s process. Among her writings are: Handbook in Motion (1974) published by The Press of the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design; Oh,Tongue (2003) and Unbuttoned Sleeves (2006) both published by Beyond Baroque Books.
News Animations
26 May - 30 June 2012
Ellen de Bruijne Projects proudly presents the work of Los Angeles based artist Simone Forti. By many regarded as one of the key figures in postmodern dance, Forti prefers to be referred to as a movement artist. By improvising she explores pure movement and its relation to the mind, in her latest work enriched by language as one of her central interests. Her work links linguistics to movement by translating the word into gesture and speech into choreography.
According to Simone Forti improvisation can never be purely natural and spontaneous as it will always be influenced by the dancers’ personal style or desire to express. By using only movements of everyday life, she aims to objectify improvisation. These movements are strengthened by the ephemeral character of her choreographies due to their truly improvisational core.
In News Animations the news becomes the choreographer, determining Forti’s movements and speech. This seemingly infinite series of performances started as an attempt to fully comprehend the news through improvisations. Moving and speaking became a method of inquiry and social commentary, implementing all words that come to mind. These words arise from questions, feelings and speculations about the world brought to us by the news. Also incorporated in Forti’s drawings, the artist has found a way to practice improvisation in the two-dimensional as well. Thought becomes movement becomes line becomes word.
Simone Forti (IT, 1935) is a dancer/choreographer /writer. After her studies and apprenticeship with Anna Halprin, she studied composition at Merce Cunningham Studios. Here she started working with choreographers like Trisha Brown, Yvonne Rainer, and Steve Paxton. Forti went on to be a pivotal figure in the Judson Dance Theater community. Over the years her work has evolved from her early Dance Constructions, through her animal movement studies and News Animations, an improvisational dance narrative form wherein movement and language spontaneously weave together. In 2005 Forti received the Guggenheim Fellowship and currently she’s teaching improvisation at UCLA.
Throughout the years, writing has been part of Forti’s process. Among her writings are: Handbook in Motion (1974) published by The Press of the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design; Oh,Tongue (2003) and Unbuttoned Sleeves (2006) both published by Beyond Baroque Books.