Danser sa vie — Art et danse de 1900 à nos jours — Centre Georges Pompidou — Exhibition — Slash Paris

Past: November 23, 2011 → April 2, 2012

The Centre Pompidou presents an unprecedented exhibition devoted to the relationship between dance and the visual arts, from 1900 to the present. Covering over 2,000 square metres, the exhibition draws on the Centre’s tradition of major multidisciplinary shows, a tradition its president Alain Seban has said he wishes to revive. Both original and prolific, the theme explores through works by the greatest artistic figures of the 20th century, the contributions of the founding movements of artistic modernism, and the current explorations of important contemporary artists and dancers.

Danser sa vie shows how dance and the visual arts together struck the spark of modernity, inspiring both the major artistic movements and the key figures who made the history of modern and contemporary art.

Conjoining the modern with the contemporary, this exhibition in three acts shows how both art and dance have explored the body in movement. The exhibition Danser sa vie allows us to discover this hidden aspect of the avant-garde art movements as a constant source of inspiration for contemporary art by establishing a dialogue between all the disciplines, of the choreographic as of the visual arts, from painting to contemporary video. A vast selection of paintings, sculptures, installations, films, videos and dance works testifys to the continual exchanges between them.

The title Danser sa vie [Dancing Ones Life] is taken from Isadora Duncan, the pioneer of modern dance:

“My Art is just an effort to express the truth of my Being in gesture and movement … Before the public which has thronged my representations I have had no hesitation. I have given them the most secret impulses of my soul. From the first I have only danced my life”

Isadora Duncan, My Life, New York, 1927