You had to hand it to the young couple simulating sex on the cold, granite floor of the Guggenheim Museum: their stamina was impressive. Trim, attractive, and fully clothed—casual, mind you, in t-shirts and jeans—they intertwined with balletic grace. And they didn’t stop, at least not for the hour or so I strolled through the rotunda. The physical control necessary for their unceasing, slow motion pas de deux was enviable, as was their focus. While there were museum visitors looking on with grave intent, not a few nudge-nudged and wink-winked. Most made a beeline past the couple, heading directly to the museum’s new dining hall, an overpriced meal being preferable, I guess, to amorous goings-on.
Kiss—that’s the title of the performance—is the brainchild of Tino Sehgal, a Berlin-based artist who specializes in “situations” and the subject of an eponymous exhibition at the Guggenheim. A student of dance and political economics, Sehgal enlists performers (some professional, some not) to participate in events that actively set out to involve the viewer. My first encounter with Sehgal occurred about a year ago. Coming upon an impromptu gathering at Marian Goodman Gallery—students, from the looks of them—I was surprised when they abruptly confronted me and started going on about some or other philosophical argument. I headed for the exit, flustered. This Situation, I subsequently learned, was Sehgal’s American debut.
An avowed anti-materialist, Sehgal ups Conceptualism’s ante. The Conceptualists, after all, never truly abandoned the object: there was always