Artistic Luminary Simone Forti Honored with Spectacular Celebration at Robert Wilson’s Watermill Center

Bonnie Comley, Sorin Prodea, Mikayla Durham, Caroline Breton, Jonathan Fahoury, Eliza Blutt, and Xuetong Feng in Landscape Partners

The famous conceptual artist Simone Forti, whose revolutionary work has had an everlasting influence on the worlds of dance and performance art, was recently honored in a spectacular event at Robert Wilson’s Watermill Center. The tribute to this 88-year-old pioneer unfolded on a wooden stage that was beautifully linked with nature itself, with trees growing right through its construction.

Simone Forti Dancers: Jonathan Fahoury, Eva Alt, Mikayla Durham, Savannah Durham, Bonnie Comley, Ava Sautter, Caroline Brenton, Demiân White, Xuetong Feng, Kennard Henson and Sorin Prodea

The gifted Sarah Swenson expertly reinterpreted Simone Forti’s renowned dance compositions for this unique occasion. International performers from the ballet and Broadway worlds, such as Eva Alt, Eliza Blutt, Caroline Breton, Bonnie Comley, Mikayla Durham, Savannah Durham, Jonathan Fahoury, Xuetong “Cecilia” Feng, Kennard Henson, Marianna Kavallieratos, Sorin Prodea, Ava Sautter, and Demiân White, were featured in the performance. The fact that Forti’s work continues to have such a strong impact across generations and genres is evidence of her ongoing influence.

Simone Forti, who is frequently referred to as a “conceptual artist,” is lauded for her groundbreaking advancements in performance art. Her impressive career was recently recognized with the coveted 2023 Biennale Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement in Dance. prestigious locations such as the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, The Louvre Museum in Paris, and Danspace in New York have displayed her work. The Centro Pecci in Prato (2021), the Galleria Raffaella Cortese in Milan (2018), the Kunsthaus Zurich in Zurich (2017), the Kunstmuseum in Bonn (2016), and the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles (2015) are just a few notable solo shows. Her first major retrospective was held in 2014 at the Museum der Moderne in Salzburg, Austria. Forti’s artistic heritage is also maintained in the collections of prestigious organizations such as New York’s Museum of Modern Art, the Stedelijk Museum, the Generali Foundation, and The Whitney Museum of American Art. In 2005, she received a Guggenheim Fellowship in dance, and in 2011, she received the Yoko Ono Lennon Courage Award for the Arts.

The Watermill Center, the setting for this extraordinary festival, was founded in 1992 by multidimensional theater and visual artist Robert Wilson. It serves as a haven for artistic discovery, supporting rising talents by providing them with a one-of-a-kind atmosphere in which to craft and find new depths in theater and other associated art forms. The Watermill Center has evolved into a global nexus that crosses age, experience, and cultural borders. It actively encourages initiatives that combine multiple artistic genres, question traditional means of representation, and promote democratic and cross-cultural approaches.

In essence, the celebration of art’s transformational power and limitless creativity that took place at the Watermill Center went beyond simply paying respect to Simone Forti. Visit WaterMillCenter.org to get more details about The Watermill Center and its objectives.