The impossibility of united formations colliding

Presented by MAK Center for Art & Architecture featuring the collaboration within James Turrell and John Lautner's ’Above Horizons.’ Performance, installation, art film, Los Angeles.

In this multimedia performance conceived by British artist Millie Brown and embodied by contemporary dancer ROBI, the human body becomes a site of architecture, conflict, and transcendence. Staged within Above Horizons, James Turrell’s iconic Skyspace, the performance unfolds as a rigorous meditation on embodiment, presence, and relational space. Presented as part of a new live series in collaboration with the MAK Center for Art and Architecture, the work explores the dynamic interplay between corporeal form and constructed environment.

Brown and ROBI engage in a choreographic dialogue that blurs the boundaries between sculpture and movement, two bodies enacting a metaphysical pas-de-deux that channels both resistance and release. The performance draws on conceptual themes of inner duality, casting the performers as personifications of optimism and oppression: at once distinct, yet inextricably linked. Their gestures navigate tension and accord, echoing the evolving light within Turrell’s installation, which becomes both scenographic element and symbolic force.

“The performance articulates the push and pull between internal states,” Brown explains. “Our bodies move as extensions of this psychological terrain, sometimes mirroring each other in perfect accord, other times caught in deliberate opposition. The shifting light acts as a compass for our movement, guiding us through moments of confrontation and surrender.”

Within the Skyspace’s immersive architecture, the performers’ physical language is heightened by its elemental context, light, space, and stillness amplifying the emotional stakes of the encounter. Their interplay becomes an embodied negotiation of care and control, where even the most forceful gestures demand attunement and trust.

Link to film: http://amp.nowness.com/story/the-physical-impossibilities-of-united-formations-colliding-millie-brown-ivan-olita