Simone Forti (b. 1935, Italy)
See Saw, 1960

Forti has explored everyday movements as a dance form. In See Saw above, the performers are using/exploring the see saw – whether in a conventional way or just as a sitting furniture or a prop enabling a balancing act.

I have interest in body movements as artistic practice – whether as a method for art making (e.g. in action painting or sound making) or as art in itself (which then opens for being labeled as “dance”). Some of my live experiments as well as video pieces build on minimalistic movements testing their artistic potential. E.g. in “Dance piece #002” I am sitting still in a corner, occasionally waving away an imaginary fly to a soundtrack produced from recorded fly sounds. In “Art must go viral, artist must be sanitised” I am frenetically washing myself in a shower – considering it a dance piece as well.