Tino Sehgal (; ; born 1976) is an artist of German and Indian descent, based in Berlin, who describes his work as "constructed situations". He is also thought of as a choreographer who makes dance for the museum setting.
Personal life
Sehgal was born in London and raised in Düsseldorf, Paris, and a town close to Stuttgart. His father was born in British India, and was a member of the Punjabi Sehgal family, but "had to flee from what is today Pakistan when he was a child"; his mother was "a German native and homemaker." He studied political economy and dance at Humboldt University, Berlin and Folkwang University of the Arts, Essen. He danced in the work of French experimental choreographers Jérôme Bel and Xavier Le Roy. In 1999, Sehgal worked with the dance collective Les Ballets C. de la B. in Ghent, Belgium, and developed a piece entitled Twenty Minutes for the Twentieth Century, a 55-minute series of movements performed naked in twenty different dance styles, from Vaslav Nijinsky to George Balanchine to Merce Cunningham, and so forth. He lives in Berlin with his two sons.
Career
The artist describes his works as 'constructed situations'. His materials are situations animated through references to art history and the participation of interpreters who use voice, reenactment, language, movement, dramaturgy and interaction to shape the experiences of visitors. He resists the production of physical objects in an extension of the logics of western conceptual art and as a part of his commitment to an ecological politics of production. Sehgal's pieces are regularly staged in museums or galleries, and continuously executed by trained individuals he refers to as “interpreters” for the entire duration of a show. The artwork is the constructed situation which arises between the audience and the interpreters of the piece.
Untitled (2000) Untitled (2000) or also called Twenty Minutes for the Twentieth Century, is one of his earliest works. A solo for a naked male dancer, initially performed by Sehgal himself and later by Frank Willens, Andrew Hardwidge and Boris Charmatz. In the piece fragments of 20 dance styles are performed in a parkour through a history of 20th century western dance practice. The piece and its reception cemented Sehgal's interest in the exhibition framework by appropriating the idea of the historical retrospective in the context of the theatre.
This is good (2001) For This is good (2001) a museum worker waves their arms and hops from one leg to the other, then states the title of the piece.
Kiss (2002) First shown in France, Kiss was exhibited and acquired by Toronto's Art Gallery of Ontario, the first museum in North America to present the artist's work. The Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, was the first American museum to acquire Kiss. An edition of four, the Museum of Modern Art, New York, acquired the final edition of Kiss. Best considered a sculptural work, Kiss is constituted by two dancers who move together slowly through a series of postures reenacting images of kisses from classic works of art history; the work appropriates the different amorous poses in Auguste Rodin's The Kiss (1889), Constantin Brâncuși's The Kiss (1908), Gustav Klimt's The Kiss (1907–08), Jeff Koons and La Cicciolina's Made in Heaven (1990–91) and various Gustave Courbet paintings from the 1860s one after the other.
This objective of that object (2004) For This objective of that object (2004) the visitor confronted by five people who remain with their backs to the visitors. The five chant, "The objective of this work is to become the object of a discussion," and if the visitor does not respond they slowly sink to the ground. If the visitor says something they begin a discussion.
This is So Contemporary (2005) In this work performers dance in a happy, emphatic way around visitors entering the exhibition space, singing, "Oh, this is so contemporary, contemporary, contemporary. Oh, this is so contemporary, contemporary, contemporary." The catchy melody and exciting dances left some of the museum visitors cheerful and dancing, themselves.
This you (2006) In 2018, the Hirshhorn Museum acquired This You (2006), a piece of performance art featuring a solo female singer performing outdoors, the performers themselves choose songs based on the mood they perceive the visitor to be in.