Pixel – Cie. Käfig / Mourad Merzouki

We’re kicking off the festival with a groundbreaking classic: Mourad Merzouki, along with his company Käfig—founded in 1996, exactly 30 years ago—brings the legendary production “Pixel” back to the Düsseldorf Festival. Merzouki’s fast-paced blend of urban dance and contemporary dance is inspired by street hip-hop culture. “Pixel” unfolds in the three-dimensional virtual landscape of an interactive video installation by digital artists Adrien Mondot and Claire Bardainne: As in a nightmare, giant waves surge upward; the dancers distort rising streams of pixels with acrobatic resistance and dance dreamily among the clouds. Yet it is witty, spectacular, and poetic.