Dance or Exercise on
the Perimeter of a Square
(Square Dance)
Bruce Nauman

SALT Beyoğlu, Floor 2

Bruce Nauman
Dance or Exercise on the Perimeter of a Square (Square Dance), 1967-1968
Duration: 8’24”

Bruce Nauman made a square of masking tape on the studio floor, with each side marked at its halfway point. To the sound of a metronome and beginning at one corner, he methodically moves around the perimeter of the square, sometimes facing into its interior, sometimes out. Each pace is the equivalent of half the length of a side of the taped square. (Source: EAI)

Courtesy Electronic Arts Intermix (EAI)


Since the mid-1960s Bruce Nauman (b.1941) has experimented with sculpture, performance and video. Building on Marcel Duchamp’s ideas, he works from the conviction that everything happening in the studio can be art. This led to a series of short films and videos based on repetitive gestures. In later works the scope broadens, but Nauman continues to explore and exploit the myths surrounding artistic creation. One example is an early neon work with spiralling text that states: “The true artist helps the world by revealing mystic truths.”