Simone Forti: Thinking with the Body
A Retrospective in Motion
July 18–November 9, 2014
Art/Histories
July 26–October 26, 2014
Museum der Moderne Salzburg
Mönchsberg 32
5020 Salzburg
Austria
Hours: Tuesday–Sunday 10am–6pm,
Wednesday 10am–8pm
During the festival seasons: Monday 10am–6pm
The Museum der Moderne Salzburg is presenting the first international retrospective of
Simone Forti and Art/Histories, a large topical exhibition introducing how artists are
engaging in history.
Simone Forti. Thinking with the Body
A Retrospective in Motion
“I am interested in what we know about things through our bodies,” says Simone Forti, who was born in Florence (Italy) in 1935, but has been living in Los Angeles since 1938, with occasional extended stays in other places. The exhibition presents the first comprehensive retrospective of the seminal œuvre of this influential artist, choreographer, dancer, and writer. In addition to numerous performances, many of them presented in live enactments, Forti’s drawing series, works with holograms and sound, and videos demonstrate her strikingly broad creative range.
In a sustained engagement with kinesthetic awareness and composition, Simone Forti dedicated herself to experimentation and improvisation; collaboration with other artists has been another mainstay of her artistic practice. In the early 1960s, she revolutionized the idea of dance and performance art by introducing movements gleaned from everyday life. In Huddle, one of her most popular works, a group of performers form a sculpture that focuses and expresses their aggregate forces. Forti is regarded as a key figure in postmodern dance and pioneer of Minimal art—personally she likes to describe herself as a “movement artist.”
Among Simone Forti’s best-known works are minimalist objects made of simple materials such as plywood and ropes: the famous Dance Constructions (1960-61), which she first produced in New York—for example, on one occasion, in Yoko Ono’s loft, where she arranged them in the form of a sculpture garden—and which spawned radically new forms of dance. Forti’s examination of the relationship between object and body in its interplay with mental processes and language yielded important contributions on the interface between sculpture and performance art.
The Dance Constructions and other performances by Simone Forti will be enacted daily at the Museum on the Mönchsberg and in public spaces. Click here for the performance schedule.
Curator: Sabine Breitwieser, Director; Curatorial Assistant: Katja Mittendorfer-Oppolzer, Museum der Moderne Salzburg
Art/Histories
How is history written, who is appointed to write it, and which tools do historians apply to the study and evaluation of historical events and the communication of their findings? How about the objectivity of scholarly research and the historic documents on which it is based? What legitimizes visual artists who bring their own resources and unique approaches to the exploration of themes in history and recent historic events in their work?
The first thematic exhibition under the aegis of the museum’s new leadership initiates a debate over a central part of the institution’s mission: making history out of artifacts. Looking beyond the narrow confines of art history, it focuses on works with a specific frame of reference: art that reflects on history and contemporary events as well as its own involvement. With more than 230 works by around forty artists, the show spans the period from the 17th century to the present. It engages both the museum’s own and other local collections as well as a variety of perspectives and artistic practices, including the rules of the art world itself, in a dialogue. The exhibition thus presents art with distinctive views on history—and the artists behind it—in a larger historical framework and surveys its origins as well as its contemporary manifestations.
Curator: Sabine Breitwieser, Director; Curatorial Assistant: Christina Penetsdorfer, Museum der Moderne Salzburg
Artists: Kader Attia, Elias Baeck, Lothar Baumgarten, Alfred Baumgartner, Heimrad Bäcker, Michael Blum, Marcel Broodthaers, Johann August Corvinus, Alice Creischer, Gerti Deutsch, Otto Dix, Stan Douglas, Harun Farocki, Omer Fast, Ian Hamilton Finlay, Simone Forti, Andrea Fraser, Andrea Geyer, Dan Graham, Renée Gree, Ernst Haas, Jörg Immendorff / Felix Dröse, Jörg Immendorff, Sanja Iveković, Kurt Kaindl, Gülsün Karamustafa, Anselm Kiefer, Käthe Kollwitz, Christoph Lederwasch, Deimantas Narkevičius, Walid Raad / The Atlas Group, Elaine Reichek, Aura Rosenberg, Martha Rosler, Anri Sala, Andreas Siekmann, Wael Shawky, Chen Shaoxiong, Johann Conrad Stapff, Danh Vō, Lawrence Weiner, Akram Zaatari