Pop-up museum: Anouk Kruithof, Universal Tongue at Pinkpop

From 20 to 22 June 2025, the video installation will take festival-goers on a journey of movement and rhythm from all over the world. Universal Tongue lets visitors reflect on dance styles and the culture and social media associated with them.

Universal Tongue

In Universal Tongue, visual artist Anouk Kruithof (1981, Dordrecht) explores dance as a powerful form of self-expression and individuality. The single-screen video installation highlights the important role of dance in our media culture. From twerking and vogue to Fortnite dances and flash mobs – Anouk Kruithof uses thousands of dance videos from all over the world, and shows us how dance lives, develops and spreads online.

Dance in the digital jungle

Universal Tongue takes you on an exhilarating, four-hour journey through the internet, where thousands of different dance styles succeed one another at top speed. The visual spectacle is based on over 8,800 videos of traditional and contemporary dances, collected on social media by a team of 52 researchers from almost 200 countries. They have been spectacularly edited to a soundtrack created especially for the work by artist and designer Karoliina Pärnänen. The loop of moving images reflects the connection and cultural exchange constantly taking place via the world wide web.