Speaking Without Words

 
2026 | video installation and photo series  

Five women, four generations, one shared language: dance. Whether at the youth centre, on the opera stage, in a club or barefoot in the kitchen – dance has different meanings in the lives of these five women.

Theresa Maria Forthaus accompanies them in Speaking Without Words and explores the extent to which dance is political and can be a place of self-determination and visibility. How do experiences become inscribed in our bodies? How do we find connection to ourselves and to others – especially at a time when bodies are still politicised, controlled and standardised? Dance becomes a purposeless, playful activity – between attribution and freedom, expectation and expression.

The project was created as part of BFF Förderpreis 2025/26 and unfolds as an installation with a photography series and an experimental video work that combines movement, light and rhythm. It is complemented by a documentary video piece with interviews that reveal memories and intergenerational perspectives of the five women, as well as an interactive painting.

Camera: Leon Frind
Colour: Anna Hitova
Sound: Leonhard van Voorst 
Gaffer: Alexander Schmutzler, Ana Kockott
Assistance: Lucy Pullicino, Roberto Vitali
BTS Camera: Elisa Méchin-Angot  

Thanks to BFF Förderpreis, Valentin Gienger, Leica Store Berlin, SEE YOU Rent Berlin and Centre Talma with Marnie Mayer-Lippok and Bettina Lutze-Luis Fernández. Special thanks to the protagonists: Nyssa (7), Emma (22), Vivian (31), Thuli (35), Karin (60).

On view 02.07.– 27.09.2026 at Willy-Brandt-Haus Berlin
https://www.fkwbh.de/ausstellung/bff-foerderpreis