The Art Newspaper

Tino Sehgal’s Chinese puzzle

The artist shows works in Shanghai for the first time this month

By Gareth Harris. From Art Basel daily edition
Published online: 15 June 2011

Tino Sehgal (Photo: Alison Clarke via flickr)

Performance artist Tino Sehgal, who is appearing in Art Salon today at Art Basel, will show works in China for the first time this month.

The Berlin-based artist will present two pieces from 2003, This Is New and This Is Exchange, at three Shanghai museums (Shanghai MOCA: 21 June-10 July, Minsheng Art Museum: 19 July-21 August, and Rockbund Art Museum: 1-25 September).

Organiser Biljana Ciric said a museum ticketing assistant will recite a different sentence from a newspaper every day as part of This Is New. For This Is Exchange, eight people, including two investment advisers, will ask visitors: “This piece is an offer. We offer to pay you half of the amount you paid to enter the museum if you make a short statement about market economy and discuss it with me. Are you interested in this offer?” If visitors engage in this quiz, they will get a discounted entry.

Sehgal will not visit China, as he dislikes flying.

UPDATE: Biljana Ciric has since informed us that "Sehgal does not consider himself a performance artist and calls his work 'constructed situations'."