Performance by Vika Kirchenbauer with Max Göran and Ashkan Sepahvand

When critique is said to “tickle” it suggests that it provokes lightly, but is equally understood to be mostly free of significant consequences. In an ideal situation, tickling is consensual, it means no harm and respects the boundaries of the ticklee… either out of affection or dependence. It thus seems a great metaphor for much of “Critical Art” that frequently exists foremost in order to fulfil the tickler with a sense of agency and action independent of any actual intent to dismantle the structures that hold them. Art institutions on the other hand need the artist-tickler because it proves impossible to tickle oneself – another is required whose movements are not entirely predictable. The art system as an island of perpetual tickling…
But do art and critique really “tickle” in the sense that actual tickling can tickle?