"The Silence of Big Artist is Overrated!”
The Comparison of Thomas Hirschhorn and Steve Reich & Beryl Corot （12/06/2004)

Shinya Watanabe

The work “Cavemanman,” which he showed in Barbara Gladstone Gallery in 2002, and “Bataille Monument” in Documenta was also impressive, but this one is also extremely impressive. The whole room itself was renovated to such as Laundromat. On the walls above the washing machine, there is a process of progressive capitalism such as this;

1. Patriarchal, i.e. to a considerable extent natural peasant farming.
2. Small commodity production of those peasants who sell
3. Private Capitalism
4. State Capitalism

On the overall wall, there is a huge collage of such as orgy party, phenomenon of stigma, rap music star, World Cup soccer and an article about Hegel and Fraud by Caterine Malabeu. On the window of the washing machine, there is a monitors which play the scene of execution in Africa, conveyance of dead body in a　battlefield, the performance of throwing away coca-cola into a urinal. One of the monitor shows the image of freshly-severed human head, and human brains in the coroner’s examination, and these were so extreme. Hirschhorn is exploding!

I negotiated the officers of the museum to take photos of it personally as a curator, but because of the security and copyright problem, it was pretty hard to get a permission of the board members to do it. However, this is the work which I really wanted to take photos.

Also there is an advisory at the entrance says "Material in this exhibit may not be appropriate for children under 8 years old.” Even with this advisory, this is a good idea to show it without strict age requirement. Compare to Japan, which recently censored Tadasu Takamine’s “Kimura-San”, the United States is still liberal. When I talked to the curator Ms. Strauss, she mentioned that they did not want to show this sign if they could. However, I hope that the impact of this artwork cannot be too strong for children… I wonder how we should answer, if 9 years old boy asks to his mon, “Mom, what is orgy?”

Hirshhorn was selected the candidate of international award of Cologne in 1997, but because of the objection from the side of mecenat, he could not get the prize eventually. He mentioned such as not by giving hope or aim, but to scorn the people who are controlled by authority and hate the lofty speech was needed. What he mentioned was very important to think about art.

By the way, recently I saw the exhibition “Building the Unthinkable,” which is about the threat of nuclear weapon, at Apex Art in Manhattan. The exhibition was interesting, therefore I joined the artists talk held by Gregory Green and Beryl Korot. Beryl Korot was in this exhibition with one chapter of digital opera “Three Tales” which is a collaboration with her husband Steve Reich. This digital opera consists of three significant events; the explosion of Hindenburg, the experiment of nuclear bomb at Bikini Island, and the invention of Artificial Intelligence.

The digital opera which Reich and Korot made just before “Three Tales” was “Cave,” and in this opera, there is a dragging scenes of questions ”Who is Abraham?” to both Israeli and Palestinian. So, in the opportunity of question to the artist, I asked this question; “In your work in “Cave,” you made the scene ‘Who is Abraham’ for both Israeli and Palestinian. And in your new work “Three Tales,” you mentioned about the threat of nuclear weapon by using the case of Bikini Island. My question is what do you think that Mordechai Banunu, who leaked the information of Israel’s development of nuclear weapon, and has been taken away by Mossad in Italy, and in jail for 18 years?

Her face fell, and think for a while, and then said, “I do not want to into it.”

However, she continued to appeal the threat of nuclear weapon, and when someone asked “When the nuclear experiment at Bikini Island was held, were there any protests to abolish nuclear weapon?” Korot answered, “In New York, there was a demonstration, and it is great thing. They appealed the threat of nuclear weapon to the world.”

Therefore, I asked her again. “Enola Gay, which dropped atomic bomb in Hiroshima and Nagasaki has been exhibited in Washington D.C. as a symbol which brought victory to America, but do you have any opinion about it? If you evaluate the value of the demonstration which was held in New York at the time of Bikini Island Experiment, I think you might have certain opinion for this exhibition.”

As expected, she did not answer my question, and kept silence.

It is easy to keep silent.

However, I want to say, such as Joseph Beuys criticized Marcel Duchamp.

“The silence of big artist is overrated!”

(C)Copyright Shinya Watanabe

*There are some parts which were not politically correct. It happend because of the lack of my recognition and knowledge.
Therefore, I erased some part of my original writing. I apologize for the person who felt bad because of my writing. I am so sorry.

Prix Marcel Duchamp 2000:
Seven Questions for Thomas Hirschhorn
http://www.toutfait.com/issues/volume2/issue_4/interviews/hirschhorn/hirschhorn.html