Dark Red

In 2021, De Keersmaeker was invited by Fondation Beyeler to create Dark Red— Beyeler, where the dancing body faced the sculptural work of Auguste Rodin and Hans Arp. As a durational ‘live installation’, the performers bring the sculptures to life. They create kinetic links between static figures, playing on the line between abstraction and representation. Occasionally, a solo performer appears as a tour guide to share his thoughts on the sculptors and their work. What would it mean for choreography to perform as an exhibition? How does the architecture of museum spaces encounter the architecture of bodies? What dialogues can unfold between dance and visual art? These questions have been a point of departure for Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker since the seminal exhibition Work/Travail/Arbeid at Wiels in 2015, and more recently for the ongoing Dark Red research project.

Now, with Dark Red—Beyeler/RPS, this work is shown in the home of Rosas; the place where the research for this creation initially took place. In Dark Red—Beyeler/RPS, the previous process is reversed—instead of taking dance from the black box to the white cube, dance that was designed specifically for the white cube finds its place in the black box. How does the choreography evolve in this space? What echoes remain of the sculptures that inspired it? Is it an experience of home-coming or of displacement? How will embodied abstraction be experienced here?