Just a regular room in the permanent collection of the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam. Except there is not one painting hanging on the white walls, no sculpture or installation presented in the room, no video screened. The only presence is a woman slowly moving across the space, on the ground. A tiny wall text reveals that this is the work Instead of allowing some thing to rise up to your face dancing bruce and dan and other things (2000) of German-British artist Tino Sehgal (1976). This woman moving around in bizarre twisted movements was the start of an extraordinary experiment, one year of monthly ‘situations’ in the old and historical part of the museum building. It had the aim of a mid-career retrospective, however it was nothing but a retrospective. These situations were live meetings between work and public, previous performances were reenacted, relived and recontextualised. The setting was always the same, the rooms of the permanent renowned collection of the Stedelijk Museum. No surprises there. However can something be challenging, innovative or spontaneous when it is already done? Can you keep your audience captivated during a year, day in day out for 365 days? Can a work be equally impressive or become more impressive in a new context, a new embedding?

Sehgal gained recognition these last few years with performances at the most renowned institutions and manifestations. Think of the group of running and talking women and men in the Turbine Hall at Tate Modern in 2012, the mysterious encounter of beatboxing and dancing people in a dark space in Kassel at Documenta in 2012 or again beatboxing and humming people moving on the floor in the group exhibition ‘The Encyclopedic Palace’ at the Venice Biennale in 2013. Not always equally profound, but captivating. For those who were once present at a performance or situation of Sehgal will remember it. Sehgal is at this moment the contemporary producer and conductor of performances. Will the stage be forever his?

The one-year retrospective of Tino Sehgal was on view until the end of 2015.