Deborah Hay and Simone Forti in Conversation: From the 1960s to Today

Two of the most influential artists of post-modern dance in conversation. On the occasion of Simone Forti’s exhibition Here it Comes at Index and Deborah Hay’s upcoming new work Figure a Sea (with music and sound score by Laurie Anderson) at Cullberg Ballet, the two artists will discuss about shared histories and influences, collaborations and their current work.

Deborah Hay was born 1941 in Brooklyn and has achieved iconic status among choreographers. Rooted in 1960s experimental Judson Dance Theatre, she has collaborated with Merce Cunningham, John Cage and Robert Rauschenberg. Hay has throughout her career tested different approaches to dance and was one of the first to use everyday movements and worked with untrained dancers. In recent years Hay focused on solo works and has created works for artists such as Mikhail Baryshnikov. During her long career she won numerous scholarships and awards, recent recognitions include an Honorary Doctorate from the Theater Academy in Helsinki (2009), a USA Fellowship (2010), and a Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grant (2011). Her new evening length work for 21 dancers, Figure a Sea, in collaboration with Laurie Anderson and commissioned by the Cullberg Ballet in Stockholm, premieres 25 -28 September 2015 at Dansens Hus.

Simone Forti (born 1935 in Florence, Italy, lives and works in Los Angeles) is a key figure of 1960s minimalist dance, examining the relationship of space and the body. Forti started dancing with Anna Halprin, a pioneer in improvisation and working with kinesthetic awareness, and moved 1959 to New York to study composition at Merce Cunningham Studio. Forti collaborated with artists and composers, including Robert Morris, La Monte Young, Yoko Ono, Robert Whitman, Charlemagne Palestine and Peter Van Riper. In the early 1980s Forti started speaking while moving, working with newspapers and doing solo performances called “News Animations.” Forti has published several books, among them Handbook in Motion: An Account of an Ongoing Personal Discourse and Its Manifestations in Dance (Nova Scotia College of Art and Design Press, Halifax 1974), and exhibited in exhibitions and museums worldwide, most recently at the Museum der Moderne Salzburg.

Social media: @indexstockholm #simoneforti #hereitcomes

With kind support by the Italian Cultural Institute in Stockholm and the Embassy of Israel in Stockholm. Events in partnership with Moderna Museet, Stockholm and Malmö, Weld, Film I Samtidskonsten.

Simone Forti will also participate in the exhibition Objects and Bodies at Rest and in Motion, which will open at Moderna Museet Malmö on 26 September 2015. The exhibition aims at examining the relationship between objects and the human body in the works of minimalist artists and choreographers. This exhibition will travel to Moderna Museet in Stockholm in spring 2016.