Tino Sehgal is a visual artist who creates temporal situations for the visitor. Instead of producing material objects, he creates an experience, a situation for the visitor. Trained as a dancer and having studied economics, Sehgal’s artwork reflects upon the cultural and political relevance of artistic modes of production while actively engaging the viewer in its reception.

Kiss is a sculptural and contemplative work executed by two dancers who move slowly and consistently through a prescribed choreography. Both real and constructed, representational and artificial, Kiss evokes a state of absorption that immediately catches viewers and draws them into a subtle engagement with their own personal experience of intimacy.

Presented within the exhibition Collection Highlights, this innovative and compelling presentation articulates the role of the museum visitor by asking how the visitor experiences, defines, and interacts with art within a museum. Rather than passively regarding a static work, Kiss generates a connection with the viewer in the very moment of engagement with art that comes to life in their presence.

Although Sehgal has exhibited extensively in Europe, Kiss is his first work in an American museum. This project is curated by Tricia Van Eck, Curatorial Coordinator and Curator of Artists’ Books.