Tino Seghal at the Guggenheim

Think fast: what is progress? An adorable young lad asked us this very question as we ascended a bare Guggenheim recently. Wary that he was trying to sell us something, we almost sidestepped him. But our manners kicked in, and we answered, he asked for clarification, we gave him an example, he countered with the evolution of iPods. As we strolled up the Guggenheim's spiral, young Michael was replaced by a college student, who wanted to know whether we thought progress could ever be universally good.

She led us to middle-aged Lynn, who wanted to talk about accumulation of ideas and objects and the sentimental value we imbue them with. And finally we concluded with Gwen, discussing the incongruities of progress. Gwen told us a story about riding a ferry in West Africa with goat herders yakking on their cellphones. It turned out that we'd been on this very same ferry, which either says something about progress or about the small town-ness of New York. In return, we told her about being on the side of a volcano in Rwanda when a tinny "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" began --- our ranger Edward's cell phone (see above).

Tino Seghal has two works on view at the Guggenheim right now: "Kiss" is exactly that, two people writhing around in a choreographed embrace. The sequence of smackers lasts for about five minutes, before it gets repeated. It's diverting enough for a little while, but not especially memorable.

The second work is called "This Progress," and it's one of the most engaging pieces of performance art we can recall seeing. Michael's opening remarks were scripted, but, beyond that, the conversations, like progress itself, were free-flowing, improvisational, wayward, contradictory, and illuminating. They also represent a democratic ideal that we're still struggling to progress toward: serious conversation about crucial concepts with total strangers.