According to Tino Sehgal, this work, which was first presented in 2002, is a “constructed situation” in which two museum guards kiss each other every time a visitor enters the exhibition space. This piece takes on different variations, the couple being alternately made up of two men, two women, or a man and a woman. Here, the artist seeks to create an interaction with the spectator: by encouraging them to take on the role of a voyeur faced with this manifestation of affection, encouraging them to reflect on the subtle differences between the public space of the museum and more intimate private space. The visitor is no longer simply a passive spectator, but becomes a producer by taking part in the very realization of these situations. Tino Sehgal composes performance works whose mode of existence is entirely factual, since he prohibits any written or visual documentation relating to his productions. This approach allows him to propose a counter-model to mercantile consumption: to create something out of nothing (actions, words) and then let it disappear, without retaining any potentially marketable physical trace, but only the memory of the past moment.

Text written by Marianne Tricoire as part of the partnership between the École du Louvre and Lafayette Anticipations – Fonds de dotation Famille Moulin.