Simone Forti, Oh, Tongue
Artist Book Launch

MOCA is honored to present the launch of Oh, Tongue (Nero Editions, 2023), a newly revised edition of Simone Forti’s journal, in which she shares her poetry and thoughts on dance, the body, writing, and the state of the world. The book is a collection of experimental texts, imagined dialogues, news animations, and poetic thoughts on life and politics. This edition includes an afterword by Fred Dewey and a postscript by Jackson MacLow.

This special event will feature Forti herself reading extracts from Oh, Tongue together with artists and curators in her community, including Jeremiah Day, Luke Johnson, Luca Lo Pinto, and Sarah Swenson.

This event is presented in conjunction with Simone Forti, a survey of Forti’s six-decade career currently on view at MOCA Grand Avenue.

Jeremiah Day studied art at the University of California (UCLA), Los Angeles, and completed the residency program at the Rijksakademie (2003-2004). In 2017, Day earned a doctorate from the Free University of Amsterdam (VU) with the presentation of A Kind of Imagination that has Nothing to Do with Fiction: Art in Public Life, a practice based project. His most recent publication, If Its For The People, It Needs To Be Beautiful, She Said, (2021) accompanied the 2020-21 traveling solo exhibition at the Badischer Kunstverein (DE), Centre d'arte Le Lait (FR), and Villa Romana (IT).

Day hosts New Logomotion Lab with Emily Smith at k77 Studios in Berlin, exploring the potential of Simone Forti's moving and talking improvisational method. Day is also on the board of k77 Studios, a self-organised space for dance and movement, which seeks to widen culture in the city through the performing arts and bridge the gap between producers and publics, amateurs and professionals.

Terrence Luke Johnson has been improvising for thirty-five years. He began his performance career improvising at the Church in Ocean Park in the Second City, Viola Spolin, Del Close tradition. In the 80's, he took a vacation from performing and received his Ph.D. in English from UCLA. He has worked with Simone Forti since 1998 when they collaborated together in War and Variations.

Luca Lo Pinto is the artistic director of MACRO - Museum of Contemporary Art of Rome. From 2014- 2019 he worked as curator of Kunsthalle Wien. He is co-founder of the magazine and publishing house NERO. He produced a range of solo exhibitions with artists including Simone Forti, Nathalie du Pasquier, Jason Dodge, Tony Cokes, Cinzia Ruggeri, Camille Henrot, Olaf Nicolai, Pierre Bismuth, Babette Mangolte, Lawrence Weiner, Gelatin&Liam Gillick, Charlemagne Palestine, Lisa Ponti, Darren Bader as well as publications with Emilio Prini, Mario Garcia Torres and Mario Diacono. He has been a contributor to numerous exhibition catalogs and magazines, including Spike, Mousse, Flash Art, Purple, Rolling Stone.

Sarah Swenson has been working with Simone Forti since 1998. She is the international performance coordinator for Dance Constructions, acquired by MoMA in 2015, and copy-edited this edition of Oh, Tongue. SarahSwensonDance.com/simone-forti.html