"Alternative" art first caught my attention a couple of years ago when I visited a small gallery in London that exhibited shit work - literally I mean: sculptures, a lot of them, made by what I recall being a Spanish or South American artist who employs faecis and turn them into art objects. Then there was a dog by the same artist, whom he let die of starvation while calling the process "modern art".

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The Tate has just bought some William Blake hand-made pictures. The inscription for one of them, depicting a naked man clasping his head in pain as he is consumed by flames, reads: "I sought Pleasure & found Pain." My thought exactly every morning when I go to work; I wonder if I also look the same. The museum paid £441m for these pieces.



Wednesday 3 March 2010

A Blinfolded Guinea Pig


After my interview with artist Miroslaw Balka I have realized that I was asking the wrong question.

The fact is: art is just art, in the way it's always been; what is shifting however is the role of the artist.

As Mr. Balka told me, his current project with Tate Modern is something absolutely new for him and being inexperienced about such kind of 'events', PR, marketing etc,etc ... he put himself in the hands of both Tate Modern and Unilever.

Both seem to have done a great job for him up to now.

However what's important for Mr. Balka is exclusively his work and he heartedly specified that 'How It Is' is not even an installation but purely a sculpture.

Like singers, who nowadays can't just rely on their CDs to make a living, artists have to find their ways in the competitive and glossy art world of today. And as Mr. Balka says, it's up to them to say NO, for instance when asked what kind of underpants they wear...

Thank you Mr. Balka, for helping me in this project like a blindfolded guinea pig!

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