These sentences can be found in Simone Forti’s new publication The Bear in the Mirror, a wonderful collection of stories, prose-poems, drawings, photos, letters, notes and memories. The renowned experimental dancer, choreographer, artist and writer Simone Forti dives into the (his)stories of her family and of the woolen mills they once owned, trying to put all the myths and fragments of information into some kind of perspective. A subtext in the book is Simone Forti's interest in bears. She takes us on a mind-provoking, mesmerizing journey through time and place, from December 1938 until the present moment, from Italy to Los Angeles. Along the journey we find ourselves in different cities and in the woods, where we meet her family, bears, dogs and spiders.

The event in Amsterdam included a reading by Simone Forti (via Skype) and writer Huan Hsu, a presentation of Forti’s seminal Dance Constructions – Huddle (1961), and a screening of Forti’s works Three Grizzlies, New York Zoo (1974) and Sleep Walkers/ Zoo Mantras (2010). A limited amount of signed copies of the book were be available.

Simone Forti’s The Bear in the Mirror is published by Vleeshal, Center for Contemporary Art in Middelburg (NL) and Koenig Books, Cologne (DE). Following Simone Forti’s solo show Here It Comes at Vleeshal Markt and Vleeshal Zusterstraat in 2016 – which included the performance of all Dance Constructions, a new interpretation of See Saw, and two unforgettable performances by Simone Forti and Charlemagne Palestine – Vleeshal’s director Roos Gortzak asked Simone Forti to collaborate on a book. Simone Forti proposed The Bear in the Mirror, which Gortzak gladly took on. Gortzak asked Nerijus Rimkus for the graphic design, as she felt a shared sensibility.

The first iteration of the book launch took place on 17 November at bij artbooks@ Hauser & Wirth, Los Angeles (US).

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