On resistance through ruptures and the rupture of resistances: in Tino Sehgal's These associations

Abstract

A number of philosophers and theorists address the need for the reconfiguration of the relationship between the individual and the collective. For example, Deleuze and Guattari propose the concept of the rhizome (1988), Hardt and Negri suggest the concept of the multitude (2009) and Jodi Dean (2012) suggests a collectivity that is characterised by diversity, horizontality, individuality, inclusivity, and openness combined with vertical and diagonal strength. In this article, I discuss Tino Sehgal's work These Associations (Tate Modern, 2012) in which I was a participant and which was also concerned with the reconfiguration of the relationship of the individual to the collective. The work proposed a mode of sociality that emphasised the importance of relationships and of spending time with others; of the production of time and attention instead of material objects (Sehgal 2012).Drawing on the thinking of Michel Foucault, Dave Elder-Vass, Hannah Arendt, Richard Sennett and Nicolas Bourriaud, I argue that the work's potential to effect change evaporated because the work, soon after its opening, ceased to perform its own philosophy vis-a-vis the relationships it produced within the work, between the maker, his collaborator and the participants. I argue that this was a result of a shift from the work's care to the work's management, which ruptured the ethos and therefore sociality of the work. I suggest that this shift can be articulated as a shift in the work's social structure from an association to an organisation that reflected and reproduced neoliberal governmentality and rationalities such as personal responsibility and self-care. I conclude with questioning the unavoidability of such an occurrence in our current economy and point out the importance of further action and of keeping promises.