1 00:00:00,920 --> 00:00:06,070 Hi. My name is not be Tahl. I'm not not biter. 2 00:00:06,070 --> 00:00:13,410 As you can imagine, I was called in America most of the time. 3 00:00:13,410 --> 00:00:24,630 I had been working as a sculptor for exactly half of my life and as a painter for 22 months. 4 00:00:24,630 --> 00:00:33,630 But what I want to talk to you about is a passion that I had when I was seven or eight years old. 5 00:00:33,630 --> 00:00:42,540 As you know, now that I was born in Switzerland, in the Green Valley, which is famous for its beauty. 6 00:00:42,540 --> 00:00:54,420 For some who read so to make no suffering. And also this language, which is my mother language, which is romance, only spoken by 36000 people. 7 00:00:54,420 --> 00:01:02,310 And actually the dialect that my dialect is only spoken by maybe 10000 people. 8 00:01:02,310 --> 00:01:09,270 So growing up, there was when I went to school there, we had five months off. 9 00:01:09,270 --> 00:01:14,290 We only had to go to school for seven months and we had five months off. We didn't have to go. 10 00:01:14,290 --> 00:01:36,220 And what's happening here? OK. 11 00:01:36,220 --> 00:01:48,430 And during those five months you had to come up to by doing something interesting because otherwise you'd die of boredom up there. 12 00:01:48,430 --> 00:01:58,030 And what. What was my interest? Very early age was to build things, to build huts, to build three houses. 13 00:01:58,030 --> 00:02:08,820 And I remember that later on when I read it to look alvino it, but only at Umbanda bearing on the tree. 14 00:02:08,820 --> 00:02:13,850 It was actually not deja vu. It was more like deja vu. 15 00:02:13,850 --> 00:02:18,550 Coop, I already went through that as a child. 16 00:02:18,550 --> 00:02:33,850 The most important thing about doing those this building, this these huts, whatever it was that you did that with enormous passion, 17 00:02:33,850 --> 00:02:40,410 which later on you tend to forget, because later on, if you start to build things, I mean, it's so complicated. 18 00:02:40,410 --> 00:02:48,760 You have to deal with all kinds of of codes and whatever. 19 00:02:48,760 --> 00:03:02,640 And I was lucky that in 1990, the late of 1990, I went to a place in Africa, in West Africa, called here in a city which is called Agadez. 20 00:03:02,640 --> 00:03:09,260 Why I went there, I don't know exactly. I wanted to go to the Sahara Desert, but. 21 00:03:09,260 --> 00:03:18,080 That's the place I wanted to go later on. I remember that I probably had seen one photograph of a mosque of this city. 22 00:03:18,080 --> 00:03:29,990 So I it was a very long trip. I had to go through Mali, Burkina Faso, and until I arrived to the city of Agadez, I arrived there at night. 23 00:03:29,990 --> 00:03:34,340 And early in the morning I got up. 24 00:03:34,340 --> 00:03:38,750 And by that time, they already knew that a white man has arrived there. 25 00:03:38,750 --> 00:03:47,480 So they were outside. The tourists were outside, tried to sell me, sell, sell jewellery to me. 26 00:03:47,480 --> 00:03:56,180 And I told them, well, I'm not that interested in jewellery. I would like to have some some land or some some place that I could build something. 27 00:03:56,180 --> 00:04:02,510 And they said no problem. It's always a problem in Africa because they know what the problem is. 28 00:04:02,510 --> 00:04:12,440 And so they sold me this land, which was a little bit outside of the city, in Agadez, in the pools section of town. 29 00:04:12,440 --> 00:04:19,450 And by the way, Niger is the poorest country in the world. 30 00:04:19,450 --> 00:04:28,060 And so by by 8:00 or 9:00 o'clock, the deal was already made about the land. 31 00:04:28,060 --> 00:04:32,680 And by 11:00, the first workers came and we started building. 32 00:04:32,680 --> 00:04:44,680 This is how fast goes and what during that time, I did a small drawing how I would like this house to look look like I only had like two hours. 33 00:04:44,680 --> 00:04:48,670 But like, they looked at it, they did not understand because they don't be. 34 00:04:48,670 --> 00:04:56,860 They don't. And they didn't understand my drawing. So it just traced the house where the house should be. 35 00:04:56,860 --> 00:05:03,040 I just traced it in the sand. And this is the first house I built. 36 00:05:03,040 --> 00:05:07,450 It's called Make Out for Me, which is the house of horrors, as you can see there. 37 00:05:07,450 --> 00:05:16,360 So many horns because the slaughtering house is in the middle of town and the whole animal is used. 38 00:05:16,360 --> 00:05:21,370 But the horns several what to do with the horns. So they burned them. And so it smells terrible. 39 00:05:21,370 --> 00:05:34,910 So I have like this 14 year old kid who goes every day and collects the horns and they're all around the house, as you can see, has three stories. 40 00:05:34,910 --> 00:05:39,570 And. And on the second floor is my room. 41 00:05:39,570 --> 00:05:47,830 It has it has four doors on each direction. 42 00:05:47,830 --> 00:05:58,940 I didn't know at the time that when the house. When the House is finished that the workers would leave. 43 00:05:58,940 --> 00:06:03,470 It's not like here that when the house is done, the workers leave, of course. 44 00:06:03,470 --> 00:06:08,810 They are. They don't. Because, like, there is always something to do on the house. 45 00:06:08,810 --> 00:06:15,110 It's like a newborn that needs care. And so they are always there, always their account of the workers. 46 00:06:15,110 --> 00:06:19,370 And they were 55 and kids are there. 47 00:06:19,370 --> 00:06:22,920 So, like, I had to come up with new ideas. It's interesting. 48 00:06:22,920 --> 00:06:31,430 It's so interesting that in a country like like newsier, the Tuaregs say that what is fast is good, 49 00:06:31,430 --> 00:06:38,960 even though this they drink tea for six hours a day, but they sick everything, which is fast is good. 50 00:06:38,960 --> 00:06:43,940 So I don't have to describe you how the school looked like. 51 00:06:43,940 --> 00:06:52,700 It was like I had never seen anything like it. So I decided to make a school which was so great because I never had would have had the opportunity to 52 00:06:52,700 --> 00:07:02,810 make a school in Western Europe or America or so because there were so many children I wanted to make. 53 00:07:02,810 --> 00:07:06,800 I made a pyramid and it was it was planned. 54 00:07:06,800 --> 00:07:11,630 Four hundred and fifty children, unfortunately, because it's on a hill. 55 00:07:11,630 --> 00:07:14,420 It attracts too many people, too many children. 56 00:07:14,420 --> 00:07:23,180 And by two years ago and also last time I was there two months ago, they are now four times as many children. 57 00:07:23,180 --> 00:07:28,700 So the whole school is full of children. You don't see the schoolhouse anymore. 58 00:07:28,700 --> 00:07:32,270 People kids don't go to school. They go onto the school. 59 00:07:32,270 --> 00:07:39,360 And so this is kind of like a moving sculpture, which sayings and praise and and it's it's really fascinating. 60 00:07:39,360 --> 00:07:54,170 It's actually so strong that when I go there, I have, like, almost tears in my eyes because it's extremely, extremely strong environment. 61 00:07:54,170 --> 00:08:01,760 And inside, you can see inside. That's where they live during the rainy season. 62 00:08:01,760 --> 00:08:06,470 And. Then I moved north of the city. 63 00:08:06,470 --> 00:08:19,370 I got like a wasis. And I built this one, this house against sandstorms and and heat. 64 00:08:19,370 --> 00:08:27,580 It's tremendously hot there. And. And this is the house that was done. 65 00:08:27,580 --> 00:08:32,290 This is the house to watch the moon to watch the the stars. 66 00:08:32,290 --> 00:08:34,060 And that was just now in New York last week. 67 00:08:34,060 --> 00:08:41,510 And I was showing this to someone and saying, like, every day when I'm there, I watch the stars who like three hours. 68 00:08:41,510 --> 00:08:45,520 And you can imagine from someone in New York say, like, you're going crazy. 69 00:08:45,520 --> 00:08:52,750 I think, you know, like, how can you spend three hours to look at the sky and even be at the house for it? 70 00:08:52,750 --> 00:09:02,320 The next one was this. This is a house to watch the sunset. If you have ever been to Africa, one of the most fascinating things are sunsets. 71 00:09:02,320 --> 00:09:06,250 It's actually go so fast. It's so intense. 72 00:09:06,250 --> 00:09:22,750 And since this is an oasis, I wanted to have a higher elevation where I could look at this frontally for this very, very short time every night. 73 00:09:22,750 --> 00:09:29,650 And the tallest is the tallest stairs leading to the west. 74 00:09:29,650 --> 00:09:33,610 That's where I sit. That also became my house afterwards. 75 00:09:33,610 --> 00:09:40,240 It's very small. It's only three by three by three metres. It has no running water, has no electricity. 76 00:09:40,240 --> 00:09:47,040 But it's one of the most that one of the houses I like the most. 77 00:09:47,040 --> 00:09:53,190 Now, the thing is that why upon its completion, it was something that you cannot. 78 00:09:53,190 --> 00:10:02,760 This building is kind of like. Complete in its in its set. 79 00:10:02,760 --> 00:10:06,580 There's nothing you can add to it. You cannot take away anything. 80 00:10:06,580 --> 00:10:18,530 It's exactly the way it is. And so I decided to move on and build a house to watch the sunset on every continent. 81 00:10:18,530 --> 00:10:24,370 Because all Americans have military bases on every continent. 82 00:10:24,370 --> 00:10:28,460 So why not having a house to watch the sunset? Like a more. 83 00:10:28,460 --> 00:10:34,360 A more. Poetic approach. 84 00:10:34,360 --> 00:10:43,190 I also invited different artists to come and see this because it was like, really, it's a real paradise in this in this oasis. 85 00:10:43,190 --> 00:10:49,420 So one of the first people I invited was Richard. 86 00:10:49,420 --> 00:10:57,310 Richard Long. And we were sitting on top of this of the stairs watching the sunset. 87 00:10:57,310 --> 00:11:03,310 And Richard said to me, OK, I'm going to give you the sun. So he made this big his biggest sculpture ever. 88 00:11:03,310 --> 00:11:09,700 It's 30 metres in diameter, made out of, I think, about eight thousand breaks. 89 00:11:09,700 --> 00:11:18,920 And this is on the bottom of the house. Now. The first. 90 00:11:18,920 --> 00:11:24,080 Continent. I wanted to build this house was America. 91 00:11:24,080 --> 00:11:29,090 I was I was in Utah in the desert of Utah, which is fascinating. 92 00:11:29,090 --> 00:11:37,610 But then I decided that already things had been built there during landmarked and the 60s, 70s. 93 00:11:37,610 --> 00:11:42,620 So, like, I went into South America, Peru, where I almost find the right spot. 94 00:11:42,620 --> 00:11:48,320 But then, thanks to an assistant of mine, an architect from Chile. 95 00:11:48,320 --> 00:11:51,800 We find this island in Patagonia. And this is the island. 96 00:11:51,800 --> 00:12:03,090 It's made out of marble. And these are these caves that you can go in to drive in or walk into it. 97 00:12:03,090 --> 00:12:06,990 Now, I was I was then confronted with something new. 98 00:12:06,990 --> 00:12:11,190 I mean, it's so beautiful that you cannot build anything on top of it. 99 00:12:11,190 --> 00:12:15,600 And since I'm not an architect, I have the freedom not to build it. 100 00:12:15,600 --> 00:12:20,930 So. I decided to dig a tunnel inside. 101 00:12:20,930 --> 00:12:32,510 So in the last five years, we have been working with, I don't know, five or six people or even more digging a tunnel into this mountain on the island. 102 00:12:32,510 --> 00:12:40,520 And. And it's all white marble. They are very good at it because like in that part of Patagonia, 103 00:12:40,520 --> 00:12:47,480 the people there are so many miners, miners in people who mined gold mines at copper mines. 104 00:12:47,480 --> 00:12:57,020 So they're very, very good in like digging a hole. And I never knew that you can actually with explosives being quite precise. 105 00:12:57,020 --> 00:13:04,760 And this is inside this house. So this you see like this is the entrance turns and you have a cupola and then a 106 00:13:04,760 --> 00:13:12,690 small window towards the west where you can see the sunset and it's spectacular. 107 00:13:12,690 --> 00:13:24,710 This is the house that night. If you can see something and you only see this light, and that's like the house inside the. 108 00:13:24,710 --> 00:13:33,210 The mountain, the island. The island did not have a name. 109 00:13:33,210 --> 00:13:37,340 Because the land is so big that most mountains don't have names. 110 00:13:37,340 --> 00:13:42,090 Only the big glaciers have names. And so this island didn't have a name. 111 00:13:42,090 --> 00:13:46,140 And the people living there before were called, oh, no, they were naked people. 112 00:13:46,140 --> 00:13:54,330 They lived under very, very harsh circumstances. They lived naked and they were the owner. 113 00:13:54,330 --> 00:14:02,170 And so I put my name and owner. So it's now no donor island. 114 00:14:02,170 --> 00:14:08,560 And then four for Europe. It's. 115 00:14:08,560 --> 00:14:15,160 I don't know if it's going to work out yet, but it's in Norway, in front of the museum, in Stavanger on the lake. 116 00:14:15,160 --> 00:14:22,630 And this building would be then in in cement. 117 00:14:22,630 --> 00:14:28,120 To China, I mean, for Asia, it's going to be in the southern part of Asia. 118 00:14:28,120 --> 00:14:34,710 If China in Gwilym Young saw you probably notice this from paintings, right? 119 00:14:34,710 --> 00:14:39,210 This mountain's in in in grilling. 120 00:14:39,210 --> 00:14:56,550 Young saw also spectacular plates. Then at the same time, I also did things in in in Switzerland, outside of this little town that, 121 00:14:56,550 --> 00:15:05,850 you know, I could acquire a park in the end of this last section, 1998. 122 00:15:05,850 --> 00:15:13,680 And it was the reason I wanted this is to to see what kind of outdoor sculptures you can make. 123 00:15:13,680 --> 00:15:21,180 It's usually very difficult because you're usually the loser if you make a sculpture which is 10 metres tall and the tree is fifteen. 124 00:15:21,180 --> 00:15:27,090 So you're usually always lose it. So like I approach is a bit different. 125 00:15:27,090 --> 00:15:31,030 This is a house that disappears by remote control. Okay. 126 00:15:31,030 --> 00:15:36,930 On there, on the left, you can see anything. The middle comes out. 127 00:15:36,930 --> 00:15:48,680 And it disappears again. I mean, you can you can really live it would be a great house for Gadhafi now, someone like that. 128 00:15:48,680 --> 00:15:54,180 And the reason also why I did this is because, like so many people come to this valley of the anger, 129 00:15:54,180 --> 00:16:02,220 Dean, they build this the houses that are only used five weeks out of the out of the year. 130 00:16:02,220 --> 00:16:06,540 They are imitations of this great architecture of Dean, 131 00:16:06,540 --> 00:16:19,530 which is one of the most intelligent architecture in the in the arts, which also we're also Le Corbusier also studied. 132 00:16:19,530 --> 00:16:23,310 And Norman Foster is living there. 133 00:16:23,310 --> 00:16:30,390 So he he came many times to look at it. So like I could see in his eyes, like, oh, my God, this is like this is really irritating. 134 00:16:30,390 --> 00:16:34,050 Like, he comes to, like, the artist and does something like that. 135 00:16:34,050 --> 00:16:41,280 And it's interesting to see, like, how the gap between architecture and sculpture is so close. 136 00:16:41,280 --> 00:16:51,390 Right. I mean, it's like it's a like Goudey. What kind of sculpture would you put in front of the house of Goudey or like or. 137 00:16:51,390 --> 00:16:57,420 It's not like in the 60s, let's say, in New York, where they used to build bangs on Wall Street, 138 00:16:57,420 --> 00:17:03,240 which has a piazza in front to put the car there or whatever. You know, it's it's a place to put the sculpture. 139 00:17:03,240 --> 00:17:14,510 Now, you don't have that anymore in Beijing. For example, if you see the building of of Rain Kohlhaas CCTV, it's a sculpture in itself. 140 00:17:14,510 --> 00:17:23,660 Already, houses don't go up straight. They go up crooked in a or like also the the house. 141 00:17:23,660 --> 00:17:36,890 But that hasn't veered. So I'm sorry that by doing at all the what is I call the Bird's Nest. 142 00:17:36,890 --> 00:17:41,360 It's a sculpture in itself. You cannot imagine putting anything in front of it. 143 00:17:41,360 --> 00:17:48,360 Right. So this park has. 144 00:17:48,360 --> 00:17:58,430 Bridges has Houses has. Also, this tower, which is made out of hair. 145 00:17:58,430 --> 00:18:06,390 I wanted something like more kinetic. And this is I have to. 146 00:18:06,390 --> 00:18:18,470 Oh, sorry. This is one of the last works which took it took me four years to build it. 147 00:18:18,470 --> 00:18:23,500 This is one piece of marble. It's nine metres. Twenty five. 148 00:18:23,500 --> 00:18:28,700 Do you know. Do you know metres or. It is 27 feet. 149 00:18:28,700 --> 00:18:36,200 Twenty eight feet. Something like that. It's one piece of marble out two metres by two metres. 150 00:18:36,200 --> 00:18:44,700 OK. And you can't get what is interesting is that you can actually get this from Karara from inside the mountain. 151 00:18:44,700 --> 00:18:50,610 You can bring it down to the valley to peer through Santa and you can work. 152 00:18:50,610 --> 00:18:59,160 So like having him being able being able to get such a big piece of marble, you better do something. 153 00:18:59,160 --> 00:19:10,110 Good. I mean, try to make the best out of it. So what I what it it is like is like I, I emptied from the inside, okay. 154 00:19:10,110 --> 00:19:15,800 It was 120 tons to begin with. But you see, they had to start with a door. 155 00:19:15,800 --> 00:19:25,290 Okay. And go inside the stall and empty everything and throw everything out of the out of the door which is like 100 tons it out of the door. 156 00:19:25,290 --> 00:19:32,970 And they were like inside the stone. Three generations who are in that digging this piece of marble. 157 00:19:32,970 --> 00:19:44,310 And then now it's in a collection outside of Brussels. 158 00:19:44,310 --> 00:19:48,580 OK, yeah, certain. I want to talk a little bit about sculpture. 159 00:19:48,580 --> 00:19:55,240 If you want. Growing up in this mountain, Ind., and his village village in St. 160 00:19:55,240 --> 00:19:59,370 In the Engadine, we have like five months out of the year is snow. 161 00:19:59,370 --> 00:20:03,120 And when the snow melts, the mountains are grey. 162 00:20:03,120 --> 00:20:11,550 So you're like actually very, very you have these two colours. And of course, like growing up there, your eyes become sensitive to that. 163 00:20:11,550 --> 00:20:15,240 If you if you are in India or you're born in Brazil. 164 00:20:15,240 --> 00:20:25,950 Of course, my work would be much more colourful, but coming from this region is actually just like greys and whites. 165 00:20:25,950 --> 00:20:34,500 That's already enough. And my favourite material in sculpture has been from the very beginning, plaster, 166 00:20:34,500 --> 00:20:39,780 because not only of the colour, which is so close to snow, but also the consistency. 167 00:20:39,780 --> 00:20:47,640 I mean, it's it's also material. You have to work fast and for a very short time. 168 00:20:47,640 --> 00:20:53,010 Plaster has the same consistency as as snow. 169 00:20:53,010 --> 00:20:54,630 So I throw this at the wall. 170 00:20:54,630 --> 00:21:07,710 This is an installation in Bury's also did some one installation at the Vienna ones where you just throw snowballs at the wall in plaster. 171 00:21:07,710 --> 00:21:15,460 And these are. The mountains that I see from my from my window. 172 00:21:15,460 --> 00:21:24,040 Which was done in 2001. It took me a long time to realise, you know, we always look too far when we do sculpture. 173 00:21:24,040 --> 00:21:34,470 It's always like, oh, you want to do this? It actually what is right right in front of you that the obvious what you're more familiar to takes. 174 00:21:34,470 --> 00:21:39,320 Sometimes more time to do. To do it. 175 00:21:39,320 --> 00:21:47,170 And these are the mountains that I see from from my window in in Switzerland. 176 00:21:47,170 --> 00:21:54,720 And there are two plaster. Another thing is, if you grew up in the mountains, I always go back now to my youth, 177 00:21:54,720 --> 00:22:01,260 which is always which is kind of like probably by the by when you are two or three years old. 178 00:22:01,260 --> 00:22:08,670 Everything is already done, right. I mean, the way you look at things, the sensitivity to colour, but also this. 179 00:22:08,670 --> 00:22:19,380 I realised much later that by going back to my town where people sit under benches, old people sit in front of their houses and they always look up. 180 00:22:19,380 --> 00:22:28,710 It's not like in Italy or in or in Greece where the old people sit in front of their houses and they spit to the ground and they look always up. 181 00:22:28,710 --> 00:22:35,250 And that it's for me. Also, like, if I have to concentrate on something, it has to be a three metres 30. 182 00:22:35,250 --> 00:22:41,060 That's like the way I can concentrate better. 183 00:22:41,060 --> 00:22:50,580 And so New York was like not important of the light or like I had to get like a loft, which was three metres 30, which I just sold. 184 00:22:50,580 --> 00:22:55,950 The other day after 33 years. So this is like a mead becoming a donkey. 185 00:22:55,950 --> 00:23:04,500 The transformation of me becoming an An and becoming a donkey. 186 00:23:04,500 --> 00:23:08,490 This is this is called Greyhound carrying my broken neck. 187 00:23:08,490 --> 00:23:14,000 I did break my leg when I was 14 years old. I went to fast skeet too fast. 188 00:23:14,000 --> 00:23:25,010 And in such a bad skier, Bielecki too fast, broke my leg and then put this on the Greyhound because this piece has to do with speed. 189 00:23:25,010 --> 00:23:31,800 OK. The dog doesn't have even feet. I can see now. And this shows like my fraction fraction. 190 00:23:31,800 --> 00:23:41,590 It was like a nightmare. It was horrible. So I had to. Later on to do this in order to get rid of it. 191 00:23:41,590 --> 00:23:53,740 This is one peak walking on two also in plaster. And this is another material which are very much like it's white marble. 192 00:23:53,740 --> 00:23:59,080 This is this piece is called Sitting on My Face. 193 00:23:59,080 --> 00:24:04,570 And also, like, again, like three metres, 20, it's always it's a measurement, it's always like three metres straight. 194 00:24:04,570 --> 00:24:06,790 That's like you have to concentrate on this. 195 00:24:06,790 --> 00:24:16,900 I mean, I could not sit on my face at three metres twenty five, but like up otherwise after he was done and I had to change something. 196 00:24:16,900 --> 00:24:24,580 It's up there. This is sled. 197 00:24:24,580 --> 00:24:36,820 Which goes in. Which doesn't work because it goes in all directions. Also carved out of one piece of marble. 198 00:24:36,820 --> 00:24:44,710 There are many people who lived in the Engadine, this valley attracted so many people because of its beauty, 199 00:24:44,710 --> 00:24:48,760 which I said before, but also people are only saying how great the Engadine is. 200 00:24:48,760 --> 00:24:52,930 Also the English. They love the country's unmarrieds and do the crest around. 201 00:24:52,930 --> 00:25:01,570 They actually invented English. People invented the the the the winter winter sports. 202 00:25:01,570 --> 00:25:06,440 I mean. People from there would not climb a mountain or go skiing. 203 00:25:06,440 --> 00:25:21,560 But like the English came and then they started in like 1850 to to do sports and also need to Nietzsche Road signs to see through their. 204 00:25:21,560 --> 00:25:25,650 It still attracts lots of people like Rita. 205 00:25:25,650 --> 00:25:34,010 And you always see artists like Snob or whether they're always attracted his values. 206 00:25:34,010 --> 00:25:39,800 So like when I was when I was little, we used to go to this house in in sales. 207 00:25:39,800 --> 00:25:44,330 I don't know if it's, you know, that's like up in the operating it in. 208 00:25:44,330 --> 00:25:53,030 And that's where nature lived. He he rented this room for four for three or four years. 209 00:25:53,030 --> 00:26:02,050 He paid one Swiss franc for it. And. And as I said, there was very little boy. 210 00:26:02,050 --> 00:26:06,010 I could only see, like his moustache, like on my eye level. 211 00:26:06,010 --> 00:26:13,120 All what I can see was this Snout's now because it's like he had too much such a moustache at the end, you couldn't even see his mouth. 212 00:26:13,120 --> 00:26:18,370 It was almost like a radio talk or something. So like he was like, oh, this is moustache. 213 00:26:18,370 --> 00:26:24,460 So later on I made like this. 214 00:26:24,460 --> 00:26:27,710 Neetu moustache. And it's actually in his bed. OK. 215 00:26:27,710 --> 00:26:37,260 It's like the. The base for it is the bed. 216 00:26:37,260 --> 00:26:47,070 My father was a hunter and there were antlers everywhere in the house, and especially this one, which was the engines. 217 00:26:47,070 --> 00:26:54,480 I don't know exactly where it was. I gave myself one day, a half a minute or even less to write something on it. 218 00:26:54,480 --> 00:26:59,580 It has on one side, four points, on the other hand. On the other side, he has three points. 219 00:26:59,580 --> 00:27:04,050 So like three, three and four. So I. 220 00:27:04,050 --> 00:27:14,130 I wrote [INAUDIBLE] You, which probably also the. The Deserto said to my father before he was killed. 221 00:27:14,130 --> 00:27:22,540 When I was when I was starting in Paris and I really did study almost nothing, I mean, it was like I went to Paris in 68. 222 00:27:22,540 --> 00:27:26,080 In April 68, the air was so thick. 223 00:27:26,080 --> 00:27:35,400 I mean, because like everyone preparing for May 68. And there was it was in this university in Branson. 224 00:27:35,400 --> 00:27:42,220 So it was like. They were all they were 13 left wing groups, Marxists. 225 00:27:42,220 --> 00:27:47,410 They were like, I think for Marxist groups and Leninist Trotskyists. 226 00:27:47,410 --> 00:27:55,570 And this was like this is what what went on at that time. 227 00:27:55,570 --> 00:28:02,060 Really, the only thing we really learnt is to throw stones and running from the police. 228 00:28:02,060 --> 00:28:06,850 But he was his girl. I think she was from Turkey. And she was like she was doing research. 229 00:28:06,850 --> 00:28:13,540 And she's spent a lot of time at the time thinking what what materials have not been used in art, 230 00:28:13,540 --> 00:28:18,780 which I find that completely kind of like ridiculous. No, I mean, it doesn't matter. 231 00:28:18,780 --> 00:28:24,100 And the other people are doing the revolution. And she came out and no one had used soap at the time. 232 00:28:24,100 --> 00:28:27,630 So, like, so I don't know if they'd like if they did a sculpture thing. 233 00:28:27,630 --> 00:28:31,450 So but it's like it's kind of like thinking of that time. 234 00:28:31,450 --> 00:28:33,160 I thought I should do a soap sculpture. 235 00:28:33,160 --> 00:28:44,980 And because, like, this is my stood in Beijing and you have all this very prolific, great assistance and you constantly have to give you work again. 236 00:28:44,980 --> 00:28:50,380 You know, just like this, workers in Africa, those countries have to build something. 237 00:28:50,380 --> 00:28:55,510 So in in in China, it goes like it's. 238 00:28:55,510 --> 00:29:03,850 It's constant activity. And so I said, okay, let's make a piece out of soap. 239 00:29:03,850 --> 00:29:12,690 And this is shown at in Brussels. And it's got 625. 240 00:29:12,690 --> 00:29:19,830 The reason why 625. Because we also counted how many points discovered. 241 00:29:19,830 --> 00:29:26,140 Now you have, like you, has what had been working for a long time, especially in the 80s, 242 00:29:26,140 --> 00:29:30,300 were juxtapositions, trying to put two things together, which has nothing to do. 243 00:29:30,300 --> 00:29:40,620 Okay. Like let's take a a year and put two and put that together with something which has nothing to do. 244 00:29:40,620 --> 00:29:50,280 OK. Which is not easy, you know, because if you put an ear to sausage, could be the ear could be in the sausage and so on. 245 00:29:50,280 --> 00:30:00,570 And so in this thing, this here is like what you have here also kind of like it's juxtaposition because it's it's it could be it could be a stone. 246 00:30:00,570 --> 00:30:05,520 Right. Which is very hard. But then you have the softness of the soil. 247 00:30:05,520 --> 00:30:12,420 So, like, if you put these two together, sometimes you create something which has tension. 248 00:30:12,420 --> 00:30:19,750 It could be you create something could could be maybe funny at times. 249 00:30:19,750 --> 00:30:24,310 Oh, you can also, if you're lucky, create something which is interesting. 250 00:30:24,310 --> 00:30:29,820 No. Which means nothing, actually. 251 00:30:29,820 --> 00:30:41,360 When I was in Italy in in the nine in the eighties eighty five, I was living above the butcher shop. 252 00:30:41,360 --> 00:30:46,920 And one day I went to the foundry and I saw that they had, like, this tung's like in the window. 253 00:30:46,920 --> 00:30:53,210 So I just took one, went to the foundry and had that cast in bronze. And this has been like since eighty five. 254 00:30:53,210 --> 00:30:58,100 Always kind of like, kind of like the thread through the work. 255 00:30:58,100 --> 00:31:02,480 And the reason why, why it's like that is because as a sculptor, you know, 256 00:31:02,480 --> 00:31:09,500 you measure in metres, you measure in, in inches and, and, and whatever feet. 257 00:31:09,500 --> 00:31:16,750 But like I think that you have to have your own measurement. You have to create your own measurement. 258 00:31:16,750 --> 00:31:25,480 Something which is only yours. And if you have like this done here, which is thirty nine centimetres or thirty seven, and you have this one, 259 00:31:25,480 --> 00:31:33,070 which is five metres eight, it's exactly as high as as the make the David of Michelangelo. 260 00:31:33,070 --> 00:31:38,990 It's not easy. It's not. It's not just like. 261 00:31:38,990 --> 00:31:43,010 You just don't in large, it's like a completed sculpture. 262 00:31:43,010 --> 00:31:47,480 Because you have to make it much longer. You have to make it much. 263 00:31:47,480 --> 00:31:56,040 You have to change it in order. Which is. That that the work turns out right. 264 00:31:56,040 --> 00:32:01,760 Did you understand that? I don't know if I did understand that, but it's something that that is very important. 265 00:32:01,760 --> 00:32:05,880 I think that to have to. 266 00:32:05,880 --> 00:32:12,830 To have this own measurements, because actually big is nothing else than small enlarged. 267 00:32:12,830 --> 00:32:20,360 But in this case, it becomes a different sculpture. And had done even Scott Dung's, which are taller. 268 00:32:20,360 --> 00:32:25,610 There is one which is like 10 million, not ten and a seven metres, 80 and so on. 269 00:32:25,610 --> 00:32:34,810 This one was just shown in Paris. And it's about time and again back to plaster. 270 00:32:34,810 --> 00:32:40,680 This is back in Beijing. It's the sculpture we just got hanging and waiting as a waiting. 271 00:32:40,680 --> 00:32:47,020 First it was called hanging in waiting because like, whenever you put something on the wall, you have to wait about five minutes. 272 00:32:47,020 --> 00:32:53,720 If it doesn't fall off, it's fine. Right. You hang something like, wait a minute, two minutes to five minutes inside. 273 00:32:53,720 --> 00:33:02,690 Then I remember in New York. I was. I was. Sleeping under a sculpture for about. 274 00:33:02,690 --> 00:33:06,410 Five years. It was like on a nail, which was crooked. 275 00:33:06,410 --> 00:33:10,910 It was very heavy. I mean, it could have killed me any time, you know. 276 00:33:10,910 --> 00:33:15,090 But I felt that you sleep better under conditions like that. So. 277 00:33:15,090 --> 00:33:20,710 So this is like hanging and waiting. It's a piece in ma. 278 00:33:20,710 --> 00:33:31,910 In in white. In plaster. And there is a whole group of these pieces. 279 00:33:31,910 --> 00:33:40,560 Now, this is also shown in Brussels. And his extension, again, means hang in there. 280 00:33:40,560 --> 00:33:44,670 Others saying fairly, like it's almost like they're falling out. 281 00:33:44,670 --> 00:33:50,210 You know, I mean, you have this kind of like this piece that hangs there and it's made out of plaster. 282 00:33:50,210 --> 00:33:55,880 Would it be made out of out of stainless steel? That's a completely different thing. 283 00:33:55,880 --> 00:34:02,900 Now, you see, it's actually stainless steel and plastic combined electric combined materials like this, 284 00:34:02,900 --> 00:34:08,150 as you can see there, all kinds of different materials. It just made the golden calf. 285 00:34:08,150 --> 00:34:21,450 And the reason why I like to to use different materials and not like use I don't know, steel like Richard Sayre on that is because, like. 286 00:34:21,450 --> 00:34:33,240 Probably, most probably has to do with having to deal with languages because like my mother language, I could only speak 10 percent out of my life. 287 00:34:33,240 --> 00:34:37,470 If it go ten minutes this way, they speak Italian. So as we speak Italian. 288 00:34:37,470 --> 00:34:41,940 You go the other way, 20 minutes. They speak German, so to speak German. Select at high school. 289 00:34:41,940 --> 00:34:50,160 We had seven languages. I'd like to deal with all these languages as probably also to do that later on my work. 290 00:34:50,160 --> 00:34:58,650 At least I start like working with different materials and not just stick to one material. 291 00:34:58,650 --> 00:35:03,390 And this is in Chinese. Do means a mole. 292 00:35:03,390 --> 00:35:07,980 OK. And until this is called Mao. 293 00:35:07,980 --> 00:35:13,680 It's not Mao Zedong, but it's martyrdom. I mean, Mao with the mole because he's got this big mole. 294 00:35:13,680 --> 00:35:17,980 So I did like this piece in charcoal. 295 00:35:17,980 --> 00:35:21,450 It was also shown in this Estonian belly. 296 00:35:21,450 --> 00:35:27,330 But I also to show this in China, where you have to be a little bit careful because you cannot say anything about Mao. 297 00:35:27,330 --> 00:35:36,830 OK. You can write it in English, but make sure it's not in Chinese because, you know, if you have to have the next visa they might like. 298 00:35:36,830 --> 00:35:42,770 You might not get it maybe. And this is pizza night. This is a mountain made out of out of coal. 299 00:35:42,770 --> 00:35:44,420 Every like that material is great. 300 00:35:44,420 --> 00:35:53,550 I mean, I don't know who, again, used coal, but like, this is this is pizza night, which is a mountain above Sunbury, which is very famous. 301 00:35:53,550 --> 00:36:02,850 So. And then, as I told you, I just started painting less than two years ago. 302 00:36:02,850 --> 00:36:11,190 It happens real. I always had an interest in painting, but I really didn't know firsthand what to paint or how to paint. 303 00:36:11,190 --> 00:36:18,720 I was not trained as a painter. And it just happened in China because you have so much time. 304 00:36:18,720 --> 00:36:27,750 You have all this assistance. It's like I went out but canvas and made a portrait, but made a portrait of myself being a rice farmer. 305 00:36:27,750 --> 00:36:32,490 The great thing about painting, which is nothing actually to do with resculpt. 306 00:36:32,490 --> 00:36:38,400 With sculpture is that you can do it. It's very you can do whatever you want. 307 00:36:38,400 --> 00:36:49,080 I mean, you can be like the rice farmer. You can be like criminal impunity and and also like doing sculpture all the time. 308 00:36:49,080 --> 00:36:53,070 You constantly have to deal with reality. It's exactly what it is. 309 00:36:53,070 --> 00:36:59,400 You know, that's what both layered one set. It's sculpture is boring because you have always to go around to look at. 310 00:36:59,400 --> 00:37:04,320 Right. So here, I'll tell you, just like in front of you. You can be. 311 00:37:04,320 --> 00:37:11,590 You can be. This is my assistant D.A. in. 312 00:37:11,590 --> 00:37:20,060 And this is my taichi teacher. So like people who are in the studio, I paint and up there and canvas and there are very small. 313 00:37:20,060 --> 00:37:25,980 They're like Somalia about the right size so that you can carry around. 314 00:37:25,980 --> 00:37:34,520 And this is also a self-portrait with Alzheimer's. This is probably what would have happened if I ever get Alzheimer's. 315 00:37:34,520 --> 00:37:59,240 So, like, you can put yourself in a position or in the future, and that's it.