![\"Photo](\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/feature.Press-preview_MC_ph-Giorgio-Perottino.jpg\")
Photo by Giorgio Perottino<\/p>\n Photo by Giorgio Perottino<\/p>\n
Closing this week, \u201cSHIT AND DIE\u201d, curated by Maurizio Cattelan feels like walking through an afternoon\u2019s worth of Tumblr blogs come to life. Centred around seven themes including \u201cThe Assembly Line of Dreams\u201d, \u201cIn Event of Moon Disaster\u201d, and \u201cDead Man Working\u201d, the show is described as a \u201cmeticulous undertaking of appropriation\u201d. Iconoclast, joker, and perfectionist, we talk to Cattelan about his work, his schizophrenic relationship to media and his dream of becoming a bank robber. Do you collect artwork?<\/strong> \nI collect emoticon stickers. Does that count? <\/p>\n Francesco Bonami once wrote an essay where he mentions that you \u201ctoyed with the idea of robbing a bank\u201d in the late Seventies. Was this an exaggeration on the part of the writer or was this really a plan?<\/strong> \nNo exaggeration there, it\u2019s a very complicated plan to which, between organising a show and shooting Toilet Paper, I am devoting my retirement years. Interview von Alicia Reuter<\/a><\/strong> \nEntnommen aus Sleek 44, What Women Want<\/a>. Read more<\/a> from the issue or buy a copy<\/a>.<\/em> Photo by Giorgio Perottino Closing this week, \u201cSHIT AND DIE\u201d, curated by Maurizio Cattelan feels like walking through an afternoon\u2019s worth of Tumblr blogs come to life. Centred around seven themes including \u201cThe Assembly Line of Dreams\u201d, \u201cIn Event of Moon Disaster\u201d, and \u201cDead Man Working\u201d, the show is described as a \u201cmeticulous undertaking of…<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18567,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[11856,139],"tags":[2047,1677,38,13,2048,2049,1959,2050],"class_list":["post-18562","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sleek-art","category-art","tag-aleksandra-waliszewska","tag-alicia-reuter","tag-art","tag-interview","tag-maurizio-cattelan","tag-shit-and-die","tag-sleek-44","tag-toilet-paper"],"acf":{"main_category":null,"legacy":"1","exclude_from_ads":null,"hero_title":null,"subtitle":null,"hero":null,"teasers":null,"facebook_image":null,"related_articles":null,"next_article":null,"sleek_card_focus":null,"content":null},"yoast_head":"\n
\nSLEEK: You once said that you wish you could take the best parts of someone else\u2019s interview and use them as yours. Is there any past interview quote that you\u2019d like to repeat here? If yes, what should my first question be?<\/strong> \nMaurizio Cattelan: Come on. Don\u2019t be so lazy, I\u2019m not writing your first question for you!
\nFair enough.\u00a0 \u201cSHIT AND DIE\u201d is a much-anticipated spectacle. Is it also a small hijacking of Turin\u2019s art fair, Artissima?<\/strong> \nArtissima offered an opportunity that we explored as much as possible. There is probably some sort of hijacking within the show: hijacking of some traditions, of some exhibition gimmicks, of some communication clich\u00e9s that we were happy to play with to create an interesting light on the works on view. But we were independent enough from the fair not to interfere or maybe just to add a layer of content to an already exhaustive programme.
\nNot being a professional curator gave us more freedom: we didn\u2019t care about any conventional rules and organised the show by following our guts. It was also very exciting to have a glance at the relationship between curator and artist from another perspective; it made us realise that control is quite an issue for all of us!
\nHow much influence does art theory or theory in general have on your practice?<\/strong> \nSomeone once said that in theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. But, in practice, there is. Let\u2019s say that I believe more in practice. We worked in a very intuitive manner to build the show, even if it ended up forging a very constructed and cohesive discourse in the end. Theory came after practice and stemmed from it. I\u2019m not a person of concepts; I\u2019d rather build images that are immediately recognisable and straightforward. For me, what you see is what you see, not what you need to read about.
\nIf there\u2019s no theory behind your work, do you see it as belonging to a particular movement?<\/strong> \nI think this is a good question for theory lovers. I don\u2019t like to define or talk about my work, I make it and it\u2019s out there for people to build whatever discourse they want around it. Besides, I believe we are in a \u2019post-movement\u2019 period; art practice is so scrappy these days that movements have lost their relevance.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/4.Carlo-Mollino.jpg\")
Carlo Mollino, Senza, circa 1962\u201373. Courtesy Museo Casa Mollino<\/p>\n
\nWould you consider yourself an optimist, pessimist, or something else?<\/strong> \nAn incurable optimist, but it depends on the weather, really.
\nHow do you feel about statements referring to you as a rebel, joker or iconoclast? Are you any of those?<\/strong> \nA rebel without a cause, maybe. From my point of view, humour and irony are tragedy in disguise, they\u2019re two sides of the same coin. Laughter is a Trojan horse entering into direct contact with the unconscious, striking the imagination and triggering visceral reactions. If humour in certain works was enough to pull anger, fear and amazement out of everyone, the psychoanalysts would be in disgrace \u2013 shame is not enough!
\nWhat are at the foundations of Toilet Paper, the magazine you publish? Which publications have inspired it?<\/strong> \nWe were inspired by no magazine in particular but by all in general: Toilet Paper is a visual object of only pictures that investigates our contemporary obsession with images. It results from the digestive process following an overdose of visual consumption. Aesthetically, one can mistake the content with commercial photography, as the magazine\u2019s pop iconography creates attraction and manipulates our vision the way advertising does. But there is a twist: a Toilet Paper image has absolutely no superego; it explores in an apparently harmless way our most intimate, hidden, unspeakable desires and urges. Each picture in the magazine is carefully constructed within a specific mental environment. It is evaluated, judged, transformed until it reaches the Toilet Paper status, conveying a mix of unexpected disturbance and uncanny ambiguity, which could define the TP style \u2013 if such definition is possible.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/2.-Shit-And-Die_ph-Zeno-Zotti.jpg\")
Installation view of “Shit and Die” Photo by Zeno Zotti<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/12-Shit-And-Die-ph-Zeno-Zotti-.jpg\")
Installation view of “Shit and Die” Photo by Zeno Zotti<\/p>\n
\nWhat were the Eighties and Nineties like for you?<\/strong> \nThe Eighties were a golden period: I could wear tie-dye spandex pants in the streets without feeling any judgment. The Nineties are the equivalent of a strong hangover for the world.
\nA question you asked Felix Gonzales Torres in 2007 \u2013 who is your public?<\/strong> \nI have to learn to ask better questions!
\nWhat\u2019s your relationship to the media of pop culture \u2013 music, technology, television, and so on?<\/strong> \nJonathan Horowitz\u2019s work in the show features the song \u201cJe t\u2019aime … moi non plus\u201d by Jane Birkin and Serge Gainsbourg, which pretty much sums up my feelings about pop culture. It\u2019s like the kind of schizophrenic relationship where you hate something so much you end up loving it; or the other way around. In any case, media is a pretty rich food for thought and a strong material to explore.
\nIn 2011, you hinted at retiring. What happened to that idea?<\/strong> \nWell, I did! But instead of cultivating a vegetable garden in the south of France I\u2019m organising a show in the north of Italy! It\u2019s retirement for ADD.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/28.Aleksandra-Waliszewska.jpeg\")
Aleksandra Waliszewska, Untitled. Courtesy the artist and LETO Gallery, Warsaw.<\/p>\n
\n“SHIT AND DIE” runs until January 11, 2015 at Palazzo Cavour in Turin, Italy<\/strong> \n
\nRead more interviews<\/a><\/strong><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"