Tino Sehgal

Curated by Luca Cerizza 

OGR – Officine Grandi Riparazioni is pleased to present an exhibition by Tino Sehgal (London, 1976). Ten years after his first and only solo show in an Italian institution, Tino Sehgal returns to Italy with an exhibition specially designed by the artist for OGR.

For the large industrial spaces Sehgal has created a complex choreography with the participation of more than 50 interpreters, conceived as one big movement in continuous change during the course of the exhibition. A series of specific situations originate from what Sehgal defines a swarm of bodies and from a choreography that presents movements designed specifically for the occasion. In this presentation the individual works of the artist—considered as discrete entities that can be separated from each other and from the process of their production—become scenes or moments, elements that take shape temporarily in a game of encounters that respond to specific circumstances such as the number of viewers, their way of interacting, or the moment of the day when these meetings take place. In the spaces of OGR once dedicated to heavy production, an expression of the first industrial revolution, Sehgal’s work suggests new forms of light production based only on the transformation of behavior, not materials. Through these situations, Sehgal starts a series of meetings and relationships to form new temporary communities that reflect the one in the spaces.

In doing so, Sehgal aims at overcoming the idea of separation on which the modern notion of a work of art is based and on which Western thought itself is based: modes of separation that take shape in the very concept of the single individual and are nourished in the modern idea of the autonomy of the work of art. Tino Sehgal has held individual exhibitions at the most important international museums: Fundação Serralves (Porto, 2005), MMK (Frankfurt, 2007), ICA (London, 2005, 2006 and 2007), Walker Art Center (Minneapolis, 2007), Guggenheim Museum (New York, 2010), Tate Modern (London, 2012), Ullens Center (Beijing, 2013), CCBB (Rio de Janeiro, 2014) and Fondation Beyeler (Basel, 2017). A year-long retrospective took place at the Stedelijk Museum of Amsterdam (2015). Two other big exhibitions were dedicated to him by Martin-Gropius-Bau (Berlin, 2015) and by Palais de Tokyo (Paris, 2016).

Luca Cerizza (Milan, 1969) is a curator and art critic. He is responsible for the Research Centre of Castello di Rivoli and teaches Museology at Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti in Milan.

Following Sehgal show, in 2018 OGR will present a series of site-specific solo exhibitions by internationally renowned artists including: Social Facts (March 29–June 24) an exhibition by Susan Hiller curated by Barbara Casavecchia, another of Rokni Haerizadeh, Ramin Haerizadeh and Hesam Rahmanian curated by Abaseh Mirvali (summer 2018) and a solo show by Mike Nelson curated by Samuele Piazza (fall 2018).

The music program of OGR will continue in 2018 among others with shows by New Order, Brad Mehldau, Blonde Redhead, John Cale and Arto Lindsay.

OGR Torino: A 20,000 square-meter Innovation Hub + Arts Center in Turin, OGR opened on September 30, 2017. OGR is a project aimed at regenerating and reopening Turin’s Officine Grandi Riparazioni, a site built between 1885 and 1895 once dedicated to the maintenance of railway vehicles and now committed to the promotion of culture and technological innovation in the fields of visual and performing arts.  

Since the opening OGR has hosted Tutto Infinito, a newly commissioned installation by Italian artist Patrick Tuttofuoco, and Like a Moth to a Flame a group show curated by Tom Eccles, Mark Rappolt and Liam Gillick. OGR has also hosted site specific projects by Alva Noto, Giorgio Moroder, The Chemical Brothers and a series of 3D concerts by Kraftwerk.

The Performing and Visual Arts Programs are run by curator and contemporary art critic Nicola Ricciardi, who was appointed Artistic Director in 2016 by OGR’s Managing Director Massimo Lapucci.