Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal opens exhibition with works by Tino Sehgal

MONTREAL.- From March 19 to April 28, 2013, the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal invites visitors to an exhibition displaying works by highly regarded artist Tino Sehgal. The works consist of choreographed gestures and spoken instructions acted out within the museum by “players” and “interpreters.”

Sehgal considers the art world—museums and galleries—a microcosm of our Western economic reality, which he views as overly focused on the production of material objects. His works therefore use the human body and social interaction as their only materials, in a total interpenetration of life and art.

The MAC is exhibiting two works by Sehgal, one more choreographic and the other grounded in discourse and exchange. Kiss, 2002, is enacted by a couple and contains allusions to various iconic moments from the history of visual art. Presented for the first time in Canada, This situation, 2007, a piece newly acquired by the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal in its bilingual (French/English) edition is evocative of a contemporary salon. Drawing from quotations selected by Sehgal from 500 years of thought, the players discuss among themselves and with visitors such issues as the aesthetics of existence and the implications of moving from a society of lack to one of abundance.

Tino Sehgal ©Tate, London 2013

Consistent with Sehgal’s immaterial artistic practice, the conditions of presentation of his works do not allow any video or photographic documentation, nor any printed promotional material. Sehgal’s works are presented continuously during museum opening hours; and visitors—if they choose—become an integral part of the piece. Existing solely in the moment of their enaction, Tino Sehgal’s pieces live on in the memory of those who witness them.

Tino Sehgal was born in Britain in 1976 and is currently based in Berlin. His most recent pieces are This variation, presented at Documenta (13) in Kassel, Germany, in summer 2012, and These associations, the 2012 Unilever Series commission for the Turbine Hall at Tate Modern in London. He has also had solo exhibitions at the Guggenheim Museum in New York, the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London and the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, and represented Germany at the 2005 Venice Biennale.

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