Today, the terms of ›political art‹, ›committed art‹, ›political artist‹ and ›committed artist‹ are used very often. These simplifications and abbreviations have long since been obsolete. They are cheap and lazy classifications. Not for a second do I think of myself as more ›committed‹ than another artist. As an artist, one must be totally committed to one’s artwork. There is no other possibility than total commitment if one wants to achieve something with one’s art. This is true for any art. Today there is a great confusion concerning the question of what should be ›Political‹ or ›political‹. I am only interested in what is really political, the political that implicates: Where do I stand? Where does the other stand? What do I want? What does the other want? The politics of opinions, of comments and of views of the majority – does not and has never interested me. I am concerned with
doing my art politically – I am not and was never concerned with making political art. The statement, ›doing art politically – not making political art‹ is a statement I took from Jean-Luc Godard. He said, «It is a matter of making films politically; it is not a matter of making political films.« But what does it mean to do art politically?
Doing art politically means giving form
Not making a form – but giving form. A form which comes from me, from myself only, which can only come from me because I see the form that way, I understand it that way and because I am the only one to know that form. To give form – as opposed to making a form – means to be one with it. I must stand alone with this form. It means raising the form, asserting this form and defending it – against everything and against everyone. It means to ask the question of form for myself and try to answer – through giving form. I want to try to confront the great artistic challenge: How can I give a form which takes a position? How can I give a form that resists
facts? I want to understand the question of form as the most important question for an artist.
Doing art politically means creating something
I can only create or fulfil something if I address reality positively, even the hard core of reality. It is a matter of never allowing the...