Tino Sehgal's Guggenheim Performance: A Spiraled Conversation
In the winter of 2010, Tino Sehgal presented "New York: conversation en spirale" at the Guggenheim Museum, where semi-professional conversation facilitators of different ages engaged visitors in Frank Lloyd Wright's iconic rotunda. Participants interacted with a teenager and four discussants, responding to prompts such as "Do you believe in progress?" before moving to a ground floor devoid of art, where a young couple was present. This performance sought to foster interaction, challenging conventional museum norms. A seasoned participant from the 1968 movements recounted his encounter with a self-assured girl and a bald man who debated the Cultural Revolution. The reception was varied, with some critics highlighting Sehgal's recurring techniques and questioning his status as a salon artist. Voltaire would have found it amusing.
Key facts
- Tino Sehgal staged a performance at the Guggenheim Museum in New York in winter 2010.
- The performance used semi-professional conversation coaches of various ages stationed on the rotunda's upper levels.
- Visitors were asked questions like 'Do you believe in progress?' by a team of four interlocutors.
- The ground floor was emptied of artworks but featured a choreographically embracing young couple.
- The author's team included a 13- or 14-year-old African-American girl and a man who had been in China during the Cultural Revolution.
- The author had a prior encounter with Sehgal's work at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London years earlier.
- Critics noted that Sehgal's strategies from the 1960s and 1970s have become familiar.
- The article was translated from English by Stéphane Roth and published in artpress.
Entities
Artists
- Tino Sehgal
- Frank Lloyd Wright
- Voltaire
- Baudelaire
- Watteau
- Fragonard
- Boucher
Institutions
- Guggenheim Museum
- Institute of Contemporary Arts
- artpress
Locations
- New York
- London
- China
Sources
- artpress —