Experience William Forsythe’s ‘nowhere and everywhere at the same time No.2’ at ZKM: Skill and Agility Required

Please do not touch the artwork

A fascinating sight: hundreds of wire ropes hang from the ceiling of the huge ZKM atrium. Small plummets are attached to their ends. The thin ropes swing slightly back and forth like pendulums, forming a huge labyrinth.

You are not allowed to touch the pendulums, otherwise they will get tangled up, but you are expressly welcome to step on them. Not that easy, because the hundreds of pendulums move in different directions and in different rhythms.

Skill and agility are required

There is some kind of computer-generated control plan hanging on the wall. You could try to memorize this plan to get through this labyrinth better. But that’s not the point of it.

William Forsythe sees the installation as a movement game that requires mobility and quick reactions. He was inspired by everyday situations in which we act intuitively.

Close connections between Forsythe and the ZKM

William Forsythe created the installation “nowhere and everywhere at the same time No.2” in 2013 and has since shown it in many places around the world. She fits particularly well into the ZKM, says the choreographer in SWR2.

He always enjoyed working with the ZKM. At the beginning of the year he therefore decided to give his archive to this special house. With hundreds of videotapes, notes, audio recordings and much more.

Old videos digitized

The installation is not the only visible part of the joint archive work. The ZKM experts have reworked some videos that were previously only available on CD-ROM, the so-called “Improvisation Technologies”.

Short videos in which Forsythe shows and explains the basic principles of his dance and choreographic work. This valuable treasure has now been transferred to its own website.