Could it be that your approach may not be fully understood by most of the audience?
Perhaps. But that’s what I was commissioned to do. I was asked to give people a comprehensive survey of my artistic vision.

The Polish artist Artur Zmijewski curated the Berlin-Biennale 2012 in this fashion. The result was that hardly anyone understood what he wanted.
I don’t think we run that risk. We work on many levels, with students and workers. We draw a lot from life. We throw balls at our audience. And let’s not forget that the Berlin Biennale was much discussed.

Your approach is experimental, nearly playful. Do you not find it cynical to make art so carefreely while people drown in the Mediterranean Sea?
I think about that a lot too. At the same time you can misuse art to pretend you are concerned with such things, when really you aren’t. Especially with such important topics, artistic quality is very important.

How do you measure such qualities?
There are no strict criteria. But I don’t want to believe that art can’t do it.

 

Excerpts from an interview with Christian Jankowski by Ewa Hess and Paulina Szczesniak, Tages-Anzeiger 29.9.2015

Image: © Giorgia Müller