Lawrence Weiner on:
Making art is about objectifying desire.
You have to make it (life, artistic practice) "A" happiness, instead of "The" happiness.
You have to make it (life, artistic practice) "A" happiness, instead of "The" happiness.
The reason you place something in the world is because of the sensuality
and the relationship of human beings with objects.
and the relationship of human beings with objects.
Art is about f*ing up peoples' dreams.
Everything they thought -- the way the world is, you're not happy about.
So you show them another way that the world could be. And it works - they're stuck. Because they can no longer go back. You've changed their logic and the way they see themselves in relation to the world.
So you show them another way that the world could be. And it works - they're stuck. Because they can no longer go back. You've changed their logic and the way they see themselves in relation to the world.
(An existential hero is): Someone who is able to ignore - literally ignore - the structure of the confines they [heed?] and get away with it. And that could be absolutely anybody. You don't have to be special and you don't have to be smart - you just need to know that really and truly you don't approve of the structure that's being presented to you.
It comes to a point where you just have to say "no".
I really thought the whole point was to dream about things you don't know about - that when you wake up in the morning it was not "that way" - that you have to make it "that way".
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More on Lawrence Weiner:
Lawrence Weiner: If in fact there is a context: 100 Notes, 100 Thoughts, Documenta Series 008
Lawrence Weiner: Something to Put Something On
The above quotes are excerpted, hand-transcribed text from a video of an artists' talk in Antwerp, 2009.
It is from Part 1 of 5 total taped discussions with Lawrence Weiner.
ARTIST TALK: LAWRENCE WEINER at NICC
in collaboration with Extra City.
18-03-2009 Tulpstraat 79, 2060 Antwerp, Belgium.
www.nicc.be / www.extracity.org
