Progress of a Day

Yes - I made it to the last performance before spring break! Although I expected more of the New York City Ballet, I enjoyed watching it quite a lot. As an European, it is funny to see people buying souvenirs in the breaks, just like eating popcorn in a theater play. Despite the European influence in New York, there are still cultural differences.



I went for a stroll in Central Park to get to the west side, afterwards. It snowed a lot the days before, and so the funny snow men people built were still there.



What I saw afterwards totally blew me away. When I entered the rotunda of the Guggenheim, a little girl asked me to follow her. She asked me "What is progress?". At first, I didn't know what to say, felt kind of shallow by the abrupt, unexpected question. But then I started by describing it as a process of ongoing development, intending to improve the initial situation, but often having ambiguous consequences. She picked up the words I said and kept on spinning a conversation as we climbed up the ramp, then passed me over to teenager. He as well, paraphrased fragments of my words and kept on "progressing" the conversation. Then he passed me to a man in the thirties who continued questioning my phrases. By arriving on top of the hall, I was accompanied by an elderly woman who told me about "her personal progress", her emacipation and the turning point in her life and left me questioning where my life would go. It was "This Progress" by the young Berliner artist Tino Seghal. And it left me absolutely perplex. I have to admit I do not understand very much of art, I basically only enjoy it. This was certainly not what I expected, though. It transcended the usual dimension of art by involving the viewer, enforcing a dialogue that leaves him confused, and by that mean, making him the artwork. Experiencing this was definitely a progress for me. It once more confronted me with essential questions of my own. And it highlighted a perfect New York saturday.