Yesterday I visited Musée de la Danse: Expo Zéro, a living exhibition created by renowned French choreographer Boris Charmatz for his Musée de la Danse in Rennes, France, and now being re-conceived for New York City as part of Performa 11.  It  is an exhibition without artwork, but with artists. It includes no objects, photographs, sculptures, or installations in fact it is comprised of  empty class rooms filled by the gestures, projects, bodies, stories, and dances which visitors get to both see and hear. For Musée de la Danse: Expo Zéro, Charmatz has selected ten international figures from contemporary dance, visual art, architecture, philosophy, and performance theory and criticism to be “in residence” at the project site for a three-day “think tank.”

Participants include:

Alex Baczynski-Jenkins (dancer/choreographer), Eleanor Bauer (dancer/choreographer),Heman Chong (visual artist/curator), Jim Fletcher (actor), Lenio Kaklea (dancer/choreographer), Jan Liesegang (architect), Valda Setterfield (dancer/actress), Marcus Steinweg (philosopher), and Fadi Toufiq(writer/artist).

Equal parts artistic project, institutional platform, and political proposition, Musée de la Danse: Expo Zéro will undoubtedly have a lasting impact on not only the New York City dance scene, but on the larger culture as well. Co-curated by Boris Charmatz and Martina Hochmuth. Lead Curator for Performa: Lana Wilson.

Leila Antakly is the founder and editor of Ninu Nina.