Tino Sehgal at Magasin 3

6 March 2008

Tino Sehgal
6 March – 4 May 2008
Curator: Richard Julin

Magasin 3 presents an exhibition of constructed situations by the acclaimed artist Tino Sehgal.

There are no objects in Tino Sehgal's exhibition. As a visitor you meet different people in the exhibition space who have been instructed by Sehgal to move in a certain way or say certain things. The artist provides the structure and the participants interpret the intention. The artwork is the constructed situation which arises between the audience and the interpreters of the piece.

Three works will be shown at Magasin 3, involving around 30 individuals as interpreters: staff members, academics from various fields and professional dancers. The works are ”This is new”(2003), ”Instead of allowing some things to rise up to your face, dancing bruce and dan and other things” (2000) and ”This objective of that object” (2004).

At the Venice Bienniale exhibition guards suddenly broke into song and started dancing around the audience. In New York he recently had a critically acclaimed show where a group of people started a discussion on market economy with the visitors and at the Berlin Bienniale of 2006 he had a couple slowly moving around on the floor embracing in a passionate kiss.

Tino Sehgal, born in London in 1976 and lives and works in Berlin.

Sehgal’s point of departure as an artist is the fact that we are using up more of the planet’s resources than what is necessary for survival. In his work he challenges the notion of production, both artistically and economically, by creating immaterial ways of generating meaning. His artwork exists only in the moment in which it is experienced, and as a verbal narrative when recounted to others. It is not documented by any audiovisual means. His practice revolves around people who are instructed by Sehgal to use their bodies, voices and personalities to interpret a specific set of rules. The reaction or even participation of the spectator gives the possibility for the work to actually happen. He makes a point of the fact that his art is not a performance, a medium which historically has been a reaction to the art market. Sehgal’s pieces exist as exhibitable, sellable and collectable, yet immaterial work.

Read more:
Proventus' engagement in Magasin 3
Other exhibitions at Magasin 3
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