Ephemeral Art-What is "This Progress" ? Perhaps just a "Kiss"

The young girl* greeted me on the ramp inside the Guggenheim Museum, introduced herself and asked "What is Progress?"  Thus began my participation in the Tito Sehgal exhibit at the Guggenheim Museum which might be called performance art or conceptual art.    I had known this was going to happen so had thought about my answer in advance.  As we slowly made our way up the ramp of the beautiful Frank Lloyd Wright designed spiral, devoid of paintings for this exhibit, I discussed how I felt progress was learning the essence of the human condition, stripped of the distractions of technology and commercialism.  The bone white, skeletal walls of the Guggenheim reinforced my thought.  About 1/3 of the way up the ramp, a middle aged man* came out from behind a pillar and literally interrupted our conversation with his thoughts about how technology could contribute to an experience and enhance the appreciation of the human condition.  Our young friend drifted away and he and I walked and talked about the dehumanization of the spirit that I had felt working in a cubicle and on spreadsheets and how I relished my current time feasting my eyes on real (not digital) art and my ears on real (not digital) music. As we were higher up on the ramp, Katherine, a woman slightly older than me approached and 'middle-aged man' excused himself.   Katherine returned to the concept of progress but from her personal, historical perspective and we discussed her exposure as a child to "colored-only" water fountains (which she thought must be wonderful and she wanted to see the colored water until her mother painfully explained the real meaning of the sign).  By the  top of the ramp we were jointly amazed that her young friend did not know who NOW was or appear to appreciate the threat to women's reproductive rights that young women faced.  So I had journeyed from personal humanistic progress to more mundane political progress.  * Isn't it typical that Kim can't remember the names of the young girl or middle-aged man!

Thus I became part of the art, of the expression, that is behind Tito Seghal's exhibit.  For a lonely retiree, it was a welcome experience but I could tell that most people who participated also welcomed and connected with this art form that exists only in the moment.  I debated starting over again and discovering how the experience differed with other encounters, but decided instead to slowly walk down the ramp and observe how others were participating.  (I also spent additional time at the museum checking out the other exhibits and will write about them in future blogs). 

The slow walk also allowed me to become a voyeur and visually participate in Sehgal's other exhibition "Kiss."  "Kiss" is a "balletic tableau" and a young man and young woman engage, non-stop, in a prolonged exploration of each other with the kiss being the central, but not only, part of the encounter. Their movements were beautiful, tender, provocative, exploratory, but never dehumanizing as the more erotic, pornographic voyueristic opportunities that abound in the media can be. The signs warned "no cameras" so I surreptitiously took the following photo on my iPhone-which added to my sense of participating as a voyeur. I couldn't load my video on this blog, but you can see it on my Facebook page. Both photo and video are intended for my family and friends only.