With his Choreographic objects, world-renowned choreographer William Forsythe shifts your attention from viewing to doing. Rather than relying on visual form alone, these pieces establish distinct choreographic conditions that take shape only through your active, physical engagement with them. Each object proposes a situation in which movement becomes the primary means of encountering the work.

‘The body is a thinking tool’, according to William Forsythe. The choreographer devised his Choreographic objects as a series of propositions: each one is set up as a situation in which movement becomes the primary way of encountering it – although observing others is always an option. At Voorlinden, you are invited to test, adjust and respond, to discover how your body thinks through action.

Experience as artwork

When you go through his exhibition at Voorlinden you will discover: sometimes your response to the Choreographic objects unfolds almost instinctively, guided by their clear cues. Others require a more deliberate interaction: you must balance, observe, coordinate and navigate their simple rules. There is no specific outcome; instead, they reveal how your body reacts to spatial prompts and shifting conditions. Your engagement – whether playful, tentative, methodical – is central. As you move, the Choreographic objects take shape. In this encounter between body, space and object, the experience itself becomes the place where the work unfolds.