DRESDEN.- A museum is usually a place where material objects produced by and testifying to people and their environment are collected, preserved, examined and displayed. But the works created by the Berlin-based artist Tino Sehgal are not in material form. He constructs situations, social interactions, the only traces of which that remain are museum visitors' individual experiences and anecdotal memories. Tino Sehgal's works do not leave behind any material evidence, they are not recorded or documented.

The scene of events is the vast central atrium of the Albertinum, a place that is open to all. The atrium welcomes and bids farewell to every visitor arriving and leaving. A magnificent space, a neo-Baroque agora that is practically purpose-made for public gatherings. Tino Sehgal makes the most of its potential, flinging open all the doors for six weeks and declaring the atrium a public forum where the people of Dresden can appear before their fellow Dresdeners and visitors from all over the world. This creates a vibrant setting for unrestricted exchange at the heart of Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden. Tino Sehgal is setting up an alternative platform for debate and discussion in sharp contrast to the type of gathering that has dominated the public perception of Dresden in the recent past.

Especially for Dresden Tino Sehgal has given a new interpretation to the work “Those Associations”, which he developed in 2012 for London's Tate Modern. From 5 July to 14 August, up to 40 actors will occupy the atrium of the Albertinum, filling the space with choreographed movements ranging from swarm-like groups to individual isolation, filling the air with song and speech. Sehgal's actors are perfectly normal Dresdeners of different ages, different social milieus and backgrounds who forge a direct connection to Dresden with their personal stories and experiences.

In an unpredictable interplay between the actors and visitors, there are moments of utterly spontaneous personal, human interaction. All that counts is direct meetings on an equal footing, always with an uncertain result. All that remains is “These Associations”: the links that might form between the actors, the visitors, the place and the stories.

Tino Sehgal (born in 1976 in London) studied political economy and choreography in Berlin and Essen. For more than 15 years he has been staging his works around the world at art biennales and well-known museums such as the Palais de Tokyo in Paris (2016), the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam (2015), the Tate Modern in London (2012), the Guggenheim Museum in New York (2010), Kunsthaus Zürich (2009) or the Museum für Moderne Kunst in Frankfurt (2007).

In 2005, Tino Sehgal played the German Pavilion at the Venice Biennale with Thomas Scheibitz; in 2012 he appeared at Documenta 13. In 2013 he was awarded the Golden Lion for Best Artist for his second Biennale piece.