Tino Sehgal’s work This Success/This Failure is an artwork acquired by Kunsten Museum of Modern Art in Aalborg that involves groups of children between the ages of 8-12, who alternately play with each other at without objects in an empty gallery followed by rest in the education lab. The artwork is not about the children, but rather about children’s capacity for imaginative play without objects. The children are divided into two groups, which enter the gallery for an hour at a time and have free run of the space for whatever imaginative, object-free play they want. When visitors enter the space, the children introduce the title of the work and artist’s name ask them if they want to participate in the games they are playing. Many guests participate, but there are also guests who simply watch the games. When the hour is up, a second group of children take their place and they go down to take a break in the educational lab or outside in the garden. The two groups alternate throughout the day.

Tino Sehgal’s artwork challenges both the educational team and the participating children and highlights issues of sustainability and the introduction of new objects into the world, which is also an issue in the artworld, where new products and objects are produced every day. The aim of the artwork is in essence to highlight the ability of the human imagination to entertain, create connections and foster community, entirely without the use of objects.

Boredom was a major element of the project, particularly at times when there were few visitors to the museum and there were periods when the children just sat staring into space in the gallery. It has been shown that boredom is an important process of reflection, in which the brain, in autopilot, connects disparate ideas, solves nagging problems, and creates a personal narrative that allows for goal setting. This was reflected in the dialogues that we had with the children when they were on their breaks from being the artwork.