Tino Sehgal
The elusive Tino Sehgal: after studying dance in Essen and an interpreter's itinerary which led to his working with Xavier Le Roy (E.X.T.E.N.S.I.O.N.S. #1) and Jérôme Bel (The Show Must Go On), he created pieces in the form of living installations that unfold an orality and a gesture that seem to have all the more freedom in that they are the result of an extremely precise plan. This native of London who lives in Berlin preferably invests museums and art galleries where he challenges visitors by "players" duly assigned to dialogue on an agreed theme, in a conversation that does not involve the exchange of "egos", but is on art or information technology, economics or philosophy. Starting with a choreographed piece linked to the history of contemporary art and the work of Bruce Nauman and Dan Graham, followed by the burlesque This Is Good (2001), an allusion this time to Leonardo da Vinci, his work developed all its complexity with This Objective of that Object (2004) and This Situation (2007), combinations open to debates whose spontaneity is only apparent. Totally against the fixation of the work and its traces - there are no films or photos of his work -,Tino Sehgal is often considered the representative par excellence of immaterial art. As such, in 2010, he exhibited a selection of his major works at the Guggenheim Museum in New York. He is coming to the Festival d'Avignon for the first time.
JLP, May, 2011.