CultureLabel

Last winter Jerry Saltz, senior art critic for New York Magazine, walked into a basketball court-sized gallery and found himself greeted by a chorus of actors. “Welcome to this situation,” they intoned in unison. “My urge was to run out because I was so scared,” he recalls. The six actors then created a tableau based on a famous painting and began to recite quotes and discuss their meaning. Sehgal’s “constructed situations” elude easy categorisation. Whereas most artworks are silent objects that are meant to be regarded passively, these installations immerse gallery visitors in bewildering interactive experiences. Although carefully conceived and choreographed, Sehgal’s situations are often mutable, according to visitors’ responses. They are also completely ephemeral: the artist prohibits photographic or video documentation of his pieces, and no catalogues, fliers or press releases are printed. Despite such immateriality, his work is created to operate within the conventions of the art world, embracing its institutions and its market. “It is sold like most sculpture or photography, not as unique works but as editions,” Sehgal’s dealer Marian Goodman says. Last June, New York’s Museum of Modern Art bought his “Kiss” for a five-figure sum. His prices range from between €25,000, for private works, and €70,000. Sehgal’s motivation is, in part, political. Both economic and artistic production “could be much more immaterial than we think”, he says. His pieces propose an alternative by freeing art from the monopoly of objects.

http://www.mariangoodman.com/