The Art of Ideas

Don’t call Tino Sehgal a performance artist and definitely don’t call his work theater or dance—or anything related to the traditional stage for that matter. The London-born conceptualist considers himself to be a visual artist first and foremost, even if his pieces don’t exist on canvas or film.

Sehgal deals in conceptualism, a form of art in which the “work” may exist only as a concept or idea—one that people interact with or react to in their own unique way. Five “pieces” by Sehgal take up residence at the Walker this month, though not in any specific gallery. Rather, visitors encounter works with titles such as This Is Good and This Is Propaganda at various points as they meander through the museum. Performers called “interpreters” perform highly calibrated movements and convey messages meant to set the artistic process in motion. “There’s no possibility not to act,” says Sehgal. “So everything you do, even if it doesn’t seem like acting, produces an effect.”

In each case, says curator Yasmil Raymond, viewers “activate” the art. When nobody is there, nothing happens. But as soon as a visitor encounters—often unwittingly—one of Sehgal’s pieces, they catalyze a set of actions. For example, in This Is New, when visitors are paying their gallery admission, museum staff recite newspaper headlines in a way specifically proscribed by Sehgal, and visitors are invited to respond.

Such direct interaction can be disconcerting for people used to viewing art from afar, but breaking down the wall between the viewer and the viewed is one of Sehgal’s central themes. Though it may sound strange at first, Sehgal’s work is “quite serious, even radical,” says Raymond—but it is also unapologetically playful and provocative. Opens Dec. 12. Walker Art Center, 1750 Hennepin Ave., Mpls., 612-375-7600