Exploring the historical and current relationship between visual arts, dance and performance, the exhibition focuses on visual artists and choreographers from the last 50 years who create sculptures and installations that turn the audience into active participants, becoming more aware of their body – or even becoming a dancer. The exhibition is accompanied by a series of performances at Southbank Centre by acclaimed choreographers including Trisha Brown and Rosemary Butcher, La Ribot and Xavier Le Roy. The exhibition has been desig... Read more

Exploring the historical and current relationship between visual arts, dance and performance, the exhibition focuses on visual artists and choreographers from the last 50 years who create sculptures and installations that turn the audience into active participants, becoming more aware of their body – or even becoming a dancer. The exhibition is accompanied by a series of performances at Southbank Centre by acclaimed choreographers including Trisha Brown and Rosemary Butcher, La Ribot and Xavier Le Roy. The exhibition has been designed by Amanda Levete Architects.

Artists featured include: Nevin Aladağ, Janine Antoni, Pablo Bronstein, Trisha Brown, Tania Bruguera, Boris Charmatz, Lygia Clark, Siobhan Davies, EVERYBODYS/Générique, William Forsythe, Simone Forti, Dan Graham, Christian Jankowski, Isaac Julien, Mike Kelley, Michael Kliën, Anita Pace, La Ribot, Xavier Le Roy & Mårten Spångberg, The OpenEnded Group and Wayne McGregor, Robert Morris, Bruce Nauman, João Penalva, Yvonne Rainer, Franz Erhard Walther and Franz West.

The exhibition takes as its starting point the Judson Church Theater and Allan Kaprow’s Happenings in 1960s New York, which blurred the boundaries between art and life. Curated by Stephanie Rosenthal, Chief Curator, Hayward Gallery, the exhibition explores how everyday movements have been a driving force in the development of both contemporary art and dance since the 1960s. It examines how visual artists in the 1960s and 1970s used choreography as a means to encourage audiences to experience art with their whole body, whilst increasingly over the last two decades artists have used dance and performance to explore how everyday behavior is choreographed and manipulated.

At points throughout the exhibition visitors can pause to explore a touch-screen digital archive designed by Unit9 and co-curated by André Lepecki, Professor of Performance Studies at New York University, which brings together photographs and films of 120 of some of the most important performance works from the last 50 years.

Alongside the exhibition, a there is a programme of high-profile performances, co-curated by the dance programming team at Southbank Centre in collaboration with Stephanie Rosenthal. British choreographer Rosemary Butcher reinterprets Allan Kaprow’s 18 Happenings in 6 parts and there are UK premieres of Schrottplatz by Thomas Lehmen (9 Nov), Llamame Mariachi by La Ribot (26 Nov) and Anne Collod’s reinterpretation of Anna Halprin’s Parades & Changes, Replays (27 Nov) and a new work by Xavier Le Roy (28 Nov). All these performances are programmed to coincide with a three-day symposium at Southbank Centre (26-28 Nov).