Tino Sehgal

Tino Sehgal, born 1976, is a British-German artist based in Berlin. His works, which he calls "constructed situations", [http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/25/arts/design/25midg.html Anne Midgette, "The New York Times", Nov 25, 2007] ] involve one or more people carrying out instructions conceived by the artist. Sehgal studied political economy and dance in Berlin and Essen and began to work as an artist in 2000.

He has exhibited at a number of important venues including the Institute of Contemporary Arts, the Tate gallery, Manifesta 4 and the 2005 Venice Biennale. In 2006 he was shortlisted for the Hugo Boss Prize. [ [http://www.guggenheim.org/press_releases/release_142.html guggenheim.org] ] On the sale of his work, the artist stipulates that there is no written set of instructions, no written receipt, no catalogue and no pictures. This means that his work is not documented in any way.

Works

For "This is New" a museum attendant says out headlines from the day's paper to visitors. In "This Success/This Failure" young children attempt to play without using objects and sometimes draw visitors into their games. "Instead of allowing some things to rise up to your face, dancing bruce and dan and other things" (2000) - is a live re-enactment of movements from dance-influenced video-works by Dan Graham and Bruce Nauman. For "This is Good" (2001) a museum worker repeats the title while waving their arms and hopping from one leg to the other. [Alan Gilbert, [http://www.villagevoice.com/art/0750,sa,78563,13.html "The Talking Lure", "The Village Voice", Dec 4, 2007] ] In "This is Propaganda" (2002) a museum guard sings a song with the lyrics "This is propaganda/you know/you know" when a visitor enters the room. For "This objective of that object" (2004) the visitor becomes surrounded 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. [Lucy Steeds, [http://www.artmonthly.co.uk/seghal.htm "Tino Seghal", "Art Monthly", March 2005, pp28 - 29.] ]

His work is held in the collection of the Tate. [ [http://www.tate.org.uk/servlet/ArtistWorks?cgroupid=999999961&artistid=8300&page=1 tate.org.uk] ]

References

* [http://www.signandsight.com/features/203.html An encounter with the artist]
* [http://www.artfacts.net/index.php/pageType/artistInfo/artist/20721 List of recent exhibitions]
* [http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1248/is_8_93/ai_n15343055 Tino Sehgal at the ICA]

External links

* [http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/exhibitions/audioarts/cd4_ts_transcript.htm 2005 "Audio Arts" interview]
* [http://www.frieze.com/issue/article/this_is_joerg_heiser_on_tino_sehgal/ "Frieze" article]
* [http://www.frieze.com/issue/review/tino_sehgal/ "Frieze" review of ICA show]
* [http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_20070206/ai_n17198386 "The Independent" review of ICA show]