Perhaps for a large part of the public that enters the new exhibition at the Botín Center in Santander, El Greco / Tino Sehgal, a dialogue of the piece This Youiiyou with the canvas Adoration of the Shepherds (1577-1579) is the first opportunity to be in front of a work by Tino Sehgal. Not because he is not a widely known name on the international scene (which he is), nor because he has not exhibited in some of the major global contemporary art centers (which he has), but because his creations are in one place and in one place thrive for a certain period of time and then disappear without leaving a trace of its existence. There are no objects that bear witness to this, no documentation, catalogs or pictures. After the passage of what the author defines as his “constructed situations” (not performances), all that remains is memory and, if any, words that attempt to capture their forms and meanings in scholarly texts or articles like this one. The art of the German-Indian artist, who was born in London in 1976 and lives in Berlin, can be defined as art that can only be experienced in the right place and at the right time. Like a bright comet, it comes and disappears at the same speed with which museums plan their next exhibitions. You have to be there to see it.
There are neither objects that bear witness to Sehgal’s “constructed situations”, nor documentation, catalogs or images.
It should be noted that it is precisely in the act of seeing or looking that the origin of his iconoclastic proposal lies. “As a teenager, it seemed strange to me to look at objects,” explains the artist in a cafeteria in Santander, where he arrived last week with his team to complete his first exhibition in Spain. “I come from a city with a lot of industrial production, a model that is not sustainable. And when you went to the museum, you realized again that the objects were critically important.” A trained economist and dancer, Sehgal began putting on stage shows at the age of 18. He soon realized that his place lay not on the boards but in those “temples” of art whose contents recreate the patterns of a society whose value is “based on our wealth and our self-knowledge on the production of things.” Starting from dance, he began to develop his constructed situations in which people occupy the spaces of the museum together with the spectators, becoming active subjects of a work that aims to trigger sensations. In contrast to the static experience of observation, Sehgal offered the ecstatic experience of participation. It didn’t take long for art centers to raffle it off.
“Adoration of the Shepherds” (1577-1579), by El Greco.
It will take about “about five years; before covid,” which stopped time, Sehgal received a call from Udo Kittelmann, a member of the Botín Center’s art advisory committee. He suggested confronting his gaze with that of El Greco, “an artist that everyone knows, but it is not that he was formative for me.” In “Adoration of the Shepherds”, part of the collection of the Botín Foundation , he immediately recognized the gentleness with which the elders protected the baby Jesus. On his phone, the artist shows the beam of light emanating from a circle of angels hovering over the scene and pointing at the baby. “This image is a motif of painting and I wanted to represent it in my own way, not necessarily from a Christian perspective, but as a miracle of life,” he clarifies. Intergenerational bonding and care are the driving force behind this work, which involves both team members with their babies and families selected through casting. “When I started working I was 18 years old and now I’m 47; I think I’m ready to include babies without their presence overshadowing the work while giving meaning to the piece. As far as the job goes, it was a challenge,” he emphasizes.
Sehgal, who is not used to giving interviews, is eloquent and relaxed during the talk. Before and after, he will open the doors of the room where the rehearsals take place – a room overlooking the bay where the audience will only see El Greco’s paintings and the “interpreters” of This Youiiyou – to reveal his creative process . With less than a week until the Oct. 7 dedication, he continues modeling the project using instructions and notes. Together with a baby, several adults move through the room, gesturing with their bodies, exhaling hypnotic music from their throats and imitating the movements of the child, who is playing on the floor with a smile. When actors look at the viewer, a short circuit occurs. But this is not what visitors to the exhibition will witness: every day everything will change in the same way that reality changes. Like a river, you cannot dive into the same body of water twice.
The team involved in the work of Tino Sehgal together with the artist in Santander. From left to right: Ali Salmon, Jeanette Hänseroth, Luna Hänseroth, Petr Hastík, Montse Gardó, Kosmas Hastík Gardó, Vera Pulido, Julia Zaccagnini, Bernard Zaccagnini, Tino Sehgal, Espen Hojer-Daemgen, Descha Daemgen, Sandhya Daemgen, Nayan Daemgen, Louise Hojer, Liz Kinoshita, Nora Nevin Kinoshita, Néstor García Díaz, Katharina Meuve, Christoph Enzel and Paul Enzel.Belén de Benito (BOTÍN FOUNDATION)
Although his approaches have their roots in the conceptual art of the sixties, Sehgal feels more connected to plastic artists and dancers such as “Watteau, Seurat, Duchamp, Balanchine, Trisha Brown, Daniel Buren, Félix Fonzález-Torres”. Beyond the reflections they reveal about art and museums, their immaterial works also appeal to sustainability. Therefore, both he and his team (as well as this journalist) have avoided traveling to Santander by plane and that they will leave no trace of their presence when they leave. However, as the artist emphasizes, the reason for his position was “never a question of anti-capitalism or anti-market.” “I’ve always done visual art, just a contemporary version. More and more products are intangible and in our rituals we reflect those production processes, the processes that people carry out in society.”
“El Greco / Tino Sehgal”. Botín Center, Santander. Until February 11, 2024.
Art without papers
As living works, Sehgal’s creations depict people. “This Youiiyou” will involve a dozen families with babies taking turns attending the center six days a week during the four-month duration of the exhibition. The project, which cannot be photographed or recorded, involves members of Sehgal’s team (one of whom, Néstor García Díaz, is Spanish and has worked with the artist since 2012) and local families, who receive compensation. If someone wanted to acquire this piece, they would have to do so through an oral contract (in this sense, Sehgal says that he encountered obstacles in Spain). To recreate this “constructed situation” or another of the artist’s, he and his collaborators value their knowledge and are able to reactivate it in a new context.
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