For This joy, Tino Sehgal and a group of dancers devote themselves to Beethoven’s music, translating its radiance into physical encounters.

Schiller’s Ode to Joy became a hymn to life through Beethoven, whose compositions—permeated by joy—are at once earthly, spiritual, and open to the unexpected. Sehgal follows this trail across six selected pieces, newly arranged with singing voices, each met by a choreography for a single body part.

Sehgal’s translation of music into physical dynamics is at the same time an encounter for the visitors with each other and a portal to open ended contemplation.

Concept and realisation: Tino Sehgal
Enacted by: Hanako Hayakawa, Margherita D’Adamo

Tino Sehgal is an artist of German and Indian descent, known for creating “constructed situations” – ephemeral, immaterial artworks that exist as choreographed encounters, conversations, and songs enacted by people rather than as physical objects. He studied political economy and dance, and his works, which use human movement, language, and interaction as their artistic material, have been exhibited at major institutions like the Guggenheim Museum, Tate Modern, and the Venice Biennale, where he was awarded the Golden Lion in 2013. Sehgal lives and works in Berlin.