Video: Scattered Crowd. "Small crowd" of balloons in a musical installation by William Forsythe
2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55
A spacious hall with high columns, in it there are thousands of white figures, and they all move smoothly, selflessly to the beat to the beautiful gentle music of Ekkehard Ehlers. This is not a royal ball, not a concert for the intelligentsia, and not even shooting a film, video, commercial or show program, but an amazing, incredibly beautiful musical installation Scattered crowdrecently seen by gallery visitors Bockenheimer Depot in Frankfurt, Germany. The famous choreographer became its author William Forsytheand the white figures in the gallery hall are balloons. Thousands of aerial "dancers" who formed this graceful Scattered Crowd … Whether we like it or not, from day to day we have to not only interact with crowds of people on the streets of the city, in shops, metro halls, offices and educational institutions, but also become a part of this very crowd. The crowd can frighten or give strength, destroy or save, exalt and seat on the throne, and then overthrow and trample from the same throne. The crowd is a dangerous and powerful force, its opinion can be destructive, and its actions can be cruel. And this means that the direct responsibility of each of us is to learn how to live in a crowd, interact with it, and do it right. The crowd is inevitable. And William Forsyth has been traveling the world for about 10 years with his unique audiovisual installation Scattered Crowd, demonstrating it in galleries and museums, theaters and concert halls, banks, educational institutions, office centers … And makes visitors not only admire this unforgettable spectacle, but also learn to interact with space, communicate with the crowd, even in the form of balloons suspended from the ceiling.
Visitors to the gallery wander through the labyrinths of white translucent balls of different sizes, enjoy the music and watch the slow strange dances of light inflatable "dancers". Someone tries to avoid contact with them, while others, on the contrary, seek to touch them, take part in the "dance", join the beauty. And at some point they understand that they literally dissolve in this atmosphere of music and light, become part of an unusual choreographic performance. William Forsythe.
Next time, the amazing installation Scattered Crowd will return to the Bockenheimer Depot in Frankfurt next year. And how William Forsythe's "Small Crowd" looked this year can be seen in the video:
Recommended:
Faces in the crowd. Art project In a Crowd by artist Guilherme Kramer
Every day we meet on the way a variety of people: acquaintances, strangers, bystanders, fellow travelers in the subway, elevator, bus. And at the end of the day, and even more so a week, there are so many of these meetings that all the faces eventually merge into one big crowd, where it is no longer clear who is who, and by what fate. And in this crowd it is so easy to get lost, as if in the Japanese subway at rush hour … Among people, but still alone - this feeling was tried to convey by his art project a Brazilian artist
Gilbert Garcin: a small man in a small world
Nowadays, most people start taking photographs during their school years. Many already think of themselves as a great photographer at the age of 15. Gilbert Garcin became one when he turned 70. Instead of being a venerable retired grandfather, he created in his photographs a small world full of symbols and allusions
White cloud of balloons. Installation by Mark Reigelmen
In June of this year, a huge white cloud appeared outside the walls of the Cleveland Museum of Art. True, nature has nothing to do with it: “White Cloud” is the name of a balloon installation that local urban art master Mark Reigelman created in honor of the summer solstice
Hot air balloons set a record: 343 balloons in the sky of France
Hot air balloons, or simply balloons - an easy and beautiful way to the sky; that's why hundreds of festivals are dedicated to them (for example, the autumn festival of balloons in Canberra). But still, the largest of them takes place in the homeland of the hot air balloon - in France, or rather, next to the Chamblay-Bussieres military base. And it was there that on July 27 they set a new world record for the number of balloons flying into the sky at the same time - one of the most beautiful records that can ever be
Mysterious places: 30 ghost towns scattered around the world
Ghost places evoke two feelings: they are frightening, but they also attract. Looking at the photographs of these 30 mysterious abandoned objects, one can imagine completely apocalyptic pictures: about what the world would look like without people