UNIVERSAL TONGUE
Anouk Kruithof

Twerking, popping, the moonwalk or the Macarena - all dance styles can be found on millions of videos on YouTube. Approximately 300 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute. Artist Anouk Kruithof is fascinated by these dances as forms of self-expression and empowerment, which are now available everywhere through the internet. She researched how dance has developed as part of our media culture globally throughout history and manifested itself online, mostly through platforms like YouTube and Instagram, and repurposed found footage to find an interwoven common ground as a shared visual language. This multi-channel video installation offers an opportunity to reflect on the various ways dance is in fact a universal language of sorts, defined and deployed by various subcultures, virally distributed across nations, cultural boundaries, continents.