'Year', almanac, edited by David Evrard, Komplot, Brussels / Motto, Berlin, 2012
https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=347867368614265&set=a.152091124858558Ok? Well anyway to begin with, starts off with just brackets no real space between them or what you could call space between them, rather similar to the 2 brackets that appear for no reason at all after just about every other name on this inventory actually but that’s all there is… I don’t know if that’s somebody’s name or whether it’s someone trying to be funny, like an artist without any kind of, like, typographically or linguistically renderable name, uhmm… a bit like, makes me think of that squiggle that appears in that title of a work by Joseph Beuys and this first work referred to: ‘Editie Trouble Spot Painting’, just referred to as ‘paper A3’ Maybe it’s a joke, ho ho ho! Then Vito Acconci and then an artwork called: ‘Tonight We Escape from New York’ which sounds like a cross between, some unspecified British music with, I don’t know, some countless music, I don’t know: ‘Chicago’ or ‘The Kids From Fame’ or with the missing link between Joe « I don’t want anything to do with music vidéos » Jackson and then what the fuck happened to him after that. Uhmm… and there’s also a period of his career I know very little about, I mean I like the early work because it looks good it’s not just like arbitrary documentation then in the early 80’s making all these, I don’t know what, like these weird houses or maquettes or machines, things with cars or swimming pools that commemorate the sites of aeroplane crashes which he then wasn’t allowed to have built because it was considered too tasteless but you know the notion of… apparently there was some kind of art that could exist without having to call itself art or having to rely on art for support although I don’t know what is meant by ‘support’ anyway: ‘Tonight We Escape From New York’, 1977 by Vito Acconci, doesn’t it make you think of Athena posters of the New York skyline, as I said, if you think of it like music from the 1980’s like ‘The Kids from Fame’ or ‘Chicago’ and you know that bollocks about suburbia by the ‘Pet Shop Boys’ which of course was also actually transformed into an artwork just as they transformed something by John Betjeman, sir John Bitchison, what the fuck was so amazing about him come to think of it, by Uhmm… Andrew Capstick, and the medium given is: ‘Zwart-Wit fotos en vetkrijt op papier’ well I mean ‘vetkrijt’, I mean without actually being able to speak Flemish, that must mean black and white photos and something or other on paper, but vetkrijt, I mean is that like marker pen or china marker I was just wondering if that meant some kind of inscription but as I said, I’m just not that clear about about work by Vito Acconci from the late 70?s but somebody did say something about all those hands on the wall but anyway. Next thing: Richard Artschwager : ‘Platzmobel’ I was looking at that today and actually it didn’t actually make me think very much of Richard Artschwager’s work, it was a bit too formed and a bit too grotesque and in a quite obvious sense, but I don’t mean in some kind of obscure, theoretical sense that no one in their right mind can be fucked with, uhmm… you know it looked like, I don’t know, like it was coming alive, literally as if his intention was for it coming alive. Uhmm, oh he’s returned to his roots, I notice with a name like Artschwager, I mean isn’t he really like the Willem De Kooning of conceptual or ‘white cube’ sort of art I mean how fucking old is he I mean Roberto mathieu, you know Matta, was actually the father of Gordon Matta-Clarke he’s dead so, I mean there has to be some other Queen Mother of the artworld. I remember actually thinking years ago that Richard Artschwager was dead but it’s quite a weird thing, I mean I don’t know exactly what a ‘Platzmobel’ would be in reality if there is such a thing but I mean it looked like it was, you know, like it was kind of an example of ho ho ho! Neither, good or bad, high or low, modernist design and, of course, he uses formica in it, ho ho ho! That almost could in some way become some kind of biamorphic but also machine like as well, I think Brian Eno once did a song didn’t he about a woman having sex with or being raped by mechanical furniture but anyway… And then Edward Bal very familiar name but just reffered to as: ‘Zonder titel, 1975, Papier, doeck, plastic’ well I know that doeck presumably like duck, cotton duck must mean canvas, paper canvas and plastic well I hope he’s actually made some work with that in some way, I mean I don’t know the shape of it or something about the way it’s presented or the positioning of the… 1975, well I should hope that now he and/or somebody else should have done something with it or maybe we could. I wonder if we’re actually allowed to, how should I put it, not just like rearrange work but maybe do something a bit more, y’know, lasting? Anyway: Stephan Balkenhol, ’Eckfigur(Frau Links), Spar en Verf’ well that’s probably some kind of carved figure that’s neither sort of high modernist nor Bavarian Black Forest gateau and old Austrian Winter wandering deal, sort of figure, not quite sure, sounds like it might be something more sort of 2 dimensional, I’m not sure, no no no no! it says 3 dimensions 80x45x43 which suggests 3 dimensional. Joachim Bandau, ‘Zonder’ oh, another untitled ‘Staal’ something made of steel bet he’s someone that does quite well making extremely boring looking work, you know, work that is boring even if you actually are in the know. Ah! Ulay and Marina Abramovic, I always wondered who Ulay was, he always sounded a bit of a poseur doesn’t he, y’know ‘U-l-a-y’ couldn’t he ever have actually got round to having a surname and from what I vaguely remember about him from the photos, I mean you get a vague idea of Marina Abramovic and of course I did meet her once many years ago uhmm… oh I just realised I’ve actually been reading this vertically not horizontally which means I’ll have to change it now ‘Anima Mundi (Bangkok)’ now I hope this is actually suitable for family viewing with a name like that ‘Anima Mundi(Bangkok), 1983, Twee kleurenfotos’, well I presume it’s some photos of some kind of work relating to the notion of their relationship because that’s what basically their work, especially if it involved photography, would have entailed so, it involved this woman who looked like a slightly more plain, y’know, touch her and your hand might get a bit dirty, sort of like gallery director and you wonder why the fuck didn’t she do that instead uhmm… I haven’t really got anything against her or her work but Ulay? I mean Who the fuck is he, does he do anything by himself ? obviously many artists name themselves in that way or even come up with names for themselves, but he just sounds like a bit of a poseur really and I always got the impression, especially in the earlier work, that his hair was kind of tied back sort of like this… which in the 70’s, around the time they started working together, would have been a bit poseur-ish but anyway I can’t quite visualise that work, I think I was looking at it today but, you know… then also, oddly enough, 2 years earlier than that, although it appears after that if you read this vertically Ulay and Marina Abramovic, Ulay and Marina Abramovic, I’m fucking up a bit here Ulay and Marina Abramovic, ‘Rest Energy’, now, the title is better but for someone who comes up with almost image or object or material-like words like me that’s good but not good enough, but, of course it’s got probably more depth and theory behind it and of course there was probably some real serious thought or meaning or reasoning behind it which of course you don’t really get with me, it’s referred to as a ‘polaroid kleurenfoto’ now a polaroid, now unless you count the real state-of-the-art as used by, like, Richard Hamilton to get his mates to photograph him some of which were like real state-of-the-art polaroids… now that’s them slumming it a bit… Whatever that is I dunno maybe it’s good but I suspect it’s actually pretty shit or disappointing in relation to other things they did or if Ulay ever did any work by himself or uhmm… Marina Abramovic’s work. Dennis Adams, now that’s a blast from the past isn’t it, you know, bus stops with images of race riots or oppressed peoples in the lightboxes, sometimes actually that can be used as urinals, putting the most dismal examples of art informel alongside images, oh yeah! That was the urinals work with images of like Algerian peoples from the 50’s and 60’s this is from a period in his career… I’m not quite sure what he does now but if he ever was big, Dennis Adams was big in the 8o’s like a slightly less ‘out there’ Kristof Wodiczko, in fact the only thing that really sticks in my mind is something I once read about him, tied in with that very sort of site/non-site work and it involved a lamp post in some way and this is just referred to as: ‘Hematuria’ 1994, now this is something everyone’s got to look into I think: Dennis Adams, not so much ‘ where is he now’ but ‘where was he then’, not so much a ‘has-been’ more a ‘never-was’; It’s just referred to as a maquette which is interesting because I mean whether I’ve ever seen his work in reality or just in reproduction or read or thought or sometimes even given a toss about it I’ve never actually come across any preparatory material like maquettes and you wonder are they like really autographic or honest, you know, very home-made or are they more sort of immaculate, did he fabricate them himself, it’s described here obviously in Flemish as a Maquette, ‘Hermaturia’, is that something to do with hermetics? Maquette ? ‘hout, aluminium,plexiglas, fluoriscerend licht, cibtatrans’, well cibtatrans must be something to do with these bloody lightboxes, like transparent photographs in glass. Oh, you’re finishing off all the wine. James Rodger Alexander, that sounds a bit uhmm… ‘Kleurenfotos’, ‘A Measure of Time’ 1981; Now is that time viewed rationally or in some more poetic or objective sense, colour photos, now because these are photos used as artworks I mean is this photography considered as like aesthetic or poetic or romantic terms or used to such ends, whether photgraphy is relevant to the work isn?’ very clear at all, and you wonder is this a British or American artist or some artist who was born in Belgium or somewhere, just seems to have this British sounding name or somebody who just moved out here, ‘A Measure of Time’ 1981 uhmm… colour photos Kleurenphotos? Y’know that’s just got me thinking just reading about it, just reading about that gets me thinking… whtever this artist: James Rodger Alexander concerns or pract.. or whatever any of that is about is it in some ways at least dealing with or operating with some more rational or scientific or realistic or at least the notion of something more romantic or subjective or even something a bit sort of Walter Benjamin or ‘aura’ about it… Quite strange that, talking about something I have absolutely no idea about. Then: Richard Bacquie, ‘Dérive’ Metaal, richtingsroer van een vliegtuig/ this was in 1986… sounds like… I could almost imagine an extremely bad sculpture like a contracted, a straightened out then a contracted Richard Deacon that probably, in a way that isn’t even aesthetic or atmospheric that has a light in it. Edward Bal again, Edward Bal, Edward Bal. Yeah, after Joachim Bandau who I was referring to earlier and then ended up reading this vertically and realising it was supposed to be horizontally, Nick Banks, sounds like someone nothing to do with the artworld and from Britain, sport, media, TV presenter, something like that, ah ! appropriately : ‘Snooker Table’ 1989: Hout, groen laken, bilijartballen, Maybe he presented ‘In at The Deep End’ or something, around then and then he was, like, getting into the artworld, I don’t know. Ido Bar-EI, more sort of cock-ly, pseudo context, conceptual type sculpture by the sounds of it… oh, there’s 3 of these, he must be doing pretty well out of it! aluminium, I don’t have to see this do I ? Carlo Battaglia, pastel on paper, 1981, no title, I bet, I mean I’m not psychic but I bet he’s some sort of trans-avantgardist artist who I’ve never heard of and never hope to want to. Ah, Luis Benedit and his, like, little… the Argentinian artist, from the 70’s both called ‘Furnarios Rufus’ ah… one sounds like the actual work itself : ‘mixed media’, they used a word in English there, ‘opgezette vogel, vogelnest, plexi, hout’, something about a birds nest; Well I normally associate him with little plastic labryinths, not sure if I ever… I know he’s done them and I think I may have seen reproductions or maybe the real thing but like plastic like games, almost some kind of toy or game from the 1970’s, something that might have been spoken about on ‘Bygones’, uhmm… the labryinths that insects live in with, like, micro-eco systems, Lewis F Benedit, an Argentinian artist who, for some reason, has or had some, at least some degree of exposure in ‘the free world’ and it’s also referred to as ‘Furnarius Rufus’ now this is interesting ‘cos it’s ‘Potlood en aquarel op papier’, I guess this is some kind of working drawing, you know how artists do this all the time, they make all these working drawings probably after the fact of having made the actual work which uhmm… which are retrieved and exhibited and even sold as artworks and you know they just had to make them, didn’t they ? y’know and had to keep them, y’know, uhmm… mind you I’m pretty hooked on that sort of thing, in fact it is one of these idioms I am addicted to, even if it’s an artist I don’t like or even if they’re not even that good in themselves you don’t actually have to like, invent or stick onto it anything positive.. It just makes me think of the time I nearly bought an ex-library copy of the facsimiles of Sir Joshua Reynolds sketch books and I mean what interest would I have had in his paintings. Peter Berg: ‘Dig It’, more sort of rather restrained, semi-formalist sculpture by the sound of it because latex comes into it whatever ‘touw’ is and ‘cement en hout’, ‘Dig It’ and several untitleds and then ‘Just One of These Things’, Emiel-Bernard Bergen Villiers, more stuff from the 70’s, uhmm.. sounds like a folio of prints. Fred Bervoets, Belgian… can’t even begin to imagine Fred Bervoet’s work. Korrie Besems: ‘Away, Away, Away’ it’ s not a good title for a work, doesn’t sound very promising but is it or is it not a good or a bad effort ?, I’m just not that sure ‘Zwart-wit foto en acrylic’, a photo that’s been retouched? Could be… you just don’t know without seeing the thing, you have to give it the benefit of the doubt but is it really worth it? Sergio Beukelaer: 2 paintings, 1992, 1999, well I hope he probably did more than that erm… Bert Beul of some sort, don’t know exactly. Guillame Bijl: ‘Van Sandt-Veilingen’ 1996 Gecertificeerde multiple 1 out of 250, not quite sure what that was from what I remember of visiting the MuKHA, maybe it wasn’t there. Then there’s ‘TV-Quiz Dekor’ by the same artist so it must be something like a set for a TV quiz I suppose. Then Guillame Bijl ‘Composition trouves’ which you might remember tasteful but rather cluttered ensembles of lonesome looking found objects, not exactly his usual work where he almost reconstructs kind of environments from some kind of set up uhmm… That make me think very much of flea markets. Then Guillame Bijl ‘Autorijschool Z’, sort of like it’s the examination room for a rather 1970’s looking driving school, obviously that’s still up, that’s his usual thing, there’s 10 years work, on and off, to produce that. Then, by the same artist: ‘10 fotos vab installaties’ uhmm… presumably colour photo documentation of reconstructed hospitals or uhmm… ideal home exhibitions, launderettes or whatever. Then another ‘Composition trouves’, ‘Mon Chalet’ uhmm… sounds very complicated, uhmm.. . ensemble of objects, sounds like the reconstruction of a chalet. So anything more of note? Well, I mean we’re only on ‘B’ so there must be quite a considerable amount to come. Christian Boltanski: ‘Réservers:Meurtres’ 1989-90, Mixed Media, installatie met zwart-wit fotos, glas, hout en lampen, well I should think those are photos of like uhmm.. very blurry ID photographs of people who, well, it’s not really very funny, who sort of came to grief and they really sort of pluck on your heart strings and automatically raise all these sort of intellectual, heavy weight issues, the nature of which one could never quite uhmm fathom if one is not some kind of uhmm… cerebal masturbator I suppose. Marcel Broodthaers: ‘Lettre Ouverte’, yes I know that work, yes it’s offset kleurendruk it’s like a printed piece of ephemera which I think somehow or other relates to some letter between Offenbach and Wagner and the affinities or the differences between him and Joseph Beuys hence the citation of Wagner and Offenbach, Richard Wagner and Jan Offenbach, can’t remember if it was just a print by itself or part of some anthology or whether it was something that was actually sent to Joseph Beuys or whether there was any intervention from Broodthaers oo themes from Joseph Beuys. Anyway, the next work: ‘Serie de neuf’... by the same artist, Marcel Broodthaers: ‘Serie de neuf tableaux en langue allemande, Die Welt’ for some reason this is described in English: Acrylic silkscreened on nine canvases-executed in 1973, this is one of 5 versions..? well I think there would be a lot more than 5, ...versions in German each differing in colour or strength of impression, there’s 9 canvases, yes that’ll be names of some great writers, German or French or English or maybe other, or artists or thinkers or historical figures and some attribute of theirs or at least their dates and, of course, probably different colours for each impression on each different canvas. Some people, especially these artists whose names you’ve never come across seem to do extremely well out of the MuKHA without actually having been so ubiquitous I’d have ever heard of them. Sjoerd Buisman, Dutch artist, makes a lot of work involving plants growing uhmm… not exactly quite sure what this entails: ‘Papier Mache / cellulose’ it’ll be some plant growing apparatus and some kind of pressures put on the way the plant will grow. A few works by Daniel Buren ‘restant kunstwerk, Zonder titel’ and ‘La Cabane Grise’ well it doesn’t really do it for me now when he does all these strange things involving coloured glass, not quite like the more historical things is it. James Lee Byars, the real glam-rocker of the art world, always wondered was he a complete nutter always seemed rather strained for one… ‘Extra Terrestrial (Shadow of an extra terrestrial man)’ referred to here as just being ‘Zwarte tule’, don’t know exactly what tule is, and another work just called: ‘Zonder titel, s.d.’ well I suppose there’ll be something quite wonderous but rather strained about it if it was by James Lee Byars, very regal verging on something almost sort of Godsent, almost sort of Masonic in its grandeur. James Casebere, oh yes I did see that, it was yet another of those photos on aluminium, not a light box, a little rather sort of garden Gethsemeny sort of prison cell presumably what he’s photographed is actually not much bigger that the lens, that’s James Casebere for you there. Jacques Charlier, oh, I really would like to see that sometime, his humorous drawings from the 70’s about conceptual artists, ‘Dessins Humoristiques-Dan Graham’, ‘Dessins Humoristiques-Jean Pierre Van Tieghem’ whoever that is, maybe he’s some artworld figure or some Belgian artist I’ve never heard of, then another one ‘Dessins Humoristiques-Bande à part Buren et André Cadéré, it’s quite interesting, that’s sort of… then André Cadéré agin, André Cadéré, André Cadéré, Daniel Buren, Larel Gerilandt then Ferand Spullermaeckers then Elizabeth Rona, Daniel Buren, L’Aigle, presumably that’s Charlier referring to Marcel Broodthaers. Oh and now we’re onto Alan Charlton, seen one you’ve seen em all, always could imagine they’d make very good loud speakers, Alan Charlton works, erm… does quite well… never really understood what was supposed to be so great about him. Hmm… something that might interest you here Michelle: Hugo De Clerq from Deutschland not Belgian as quite a lot of artists seem to be, something referred to as being.. 3 works referred to as ‘Mandala’ 1973, Acryl op doeck, Acrylic on canvas, maybe be a good idea, just for your own interest Michelle if you checked those out sometime. William Cole, a Belgian artist with a rather un-Belgian name… oh… Willem Cole not William: ‘Je vous demande le temps’, ‘L’impossibilité d_tre deux’ the impossibility of being God? oh… ‘Je vous demande le temps’, I ask you the time, unless it means something much more heavyweight than that, perhaps these works are like a more modest, sensible version of James Lee Byars actually. Thierry De Cordier, name sounds familiar as indeed the nature of the work. Quite like the sound of it, quite interesting that all these artists you can’t remember who they are or never heard of them or whatever work it is of theirs you didn’t see it or you can’t remember it, sort of curious to want to actually, whenever you’ve got the time or the opportunity, whether the works are on view or you’ve ever got access to the store room just to check them out. Raoul De Keyser, oh yes those sort of formalist paintings, yes they would have quite a few of his wouldn’t they. Paul De Vree, his sort of rather socially concerned, ephemeral little collages and uhmm… always refers to Belfast quite a lot… Radical! Uhmm… concrete poetry and uhmm… sort of ephemeral collage, mail art sort of efforts, and of course homages to his mail art and concrete poetry mates, know the territory don’t you? Seem to have the complete works of his... hmm… ah finally there is an end to this infinite list of Paul De Vree. Richard Deacon: ‘Body of Thought’, well at least he’s making an effort, I mean I don’t know if that’s a reference to something but one of those words or phrases that serves a purpose, at least sounds as if it’s in everyday or not so everyday usage or lifted from somewhere? nice try. Wim Delvoye: ‘Betonmolen Twee Delftse butaangasflessen’ well if you’re familiar with his work you can pretty well imagine what those would be can’t you. Denmark, oddly enough I know a bit about, well not really anything about that particular artist with just one name which pupports to be a country. Braco Dimitrijevic, well nothing much is said about it, it’s a later work, shouldn’t think it’s that interesting an example of his work, it’s an untitled work but I think his works do at least have descriptions to the titles and it doesn’t sound that… uhmm… yeah, what exactly would that be: ’Reproduktie van foro op doeck’ unless it’s a photograph on canvas and at least that can at least be, there’s always something almost interesting about the notion of photograph printed on something other that paper, doesn’t sound like anything that impressive. Mark Dion, natural history museums with an extremely lengthy list of meanings involved, ‘The Corridor of Extinction’ uhmm… ‘2 demonteerbaere wanden: 2 houten muren met staanders met behangpapier en lambrizering, perzisch tapijt, bijzettafeltje, ronde viskom, plant, gehaakt tafelkleedje, 12 ingelijste fotos van’, so I presume that’s one of these sort of real workshop, natural history museum, archeological dig, save the rainforest sort of deals you get from Mark Dion. Eugenio Dittborn, ah 1993, it’s a later one, not quite sure what he does now, never quite understood the works themselves but I really like the airmale envelopes he had specially printed so he could send them out from Chile to all over the world, I always wondered how to have a copy of one of those bloody… you know the airmail paintings that fold out of one of those envelopes. Jiri Georg Dokoupil, ah… that work you were all sort of waxing lyrical about: ‘De neus van Jean-Francois Lyotard’ Kristal, I don’t know if that’s a canvas or a painting… uhmm I suppose that would be rather witty, sort of ‘pulling its weight’ in terms of being some sort of white cube, artworld sort of work. Lili Dujourie, videos, what else, ‘Hout, doek, lak, fluweel, kippegaas, zilver, glas, vloeistof’ except one work more sort of plastic object sculpture installation sort of work: ‘The Kiss’. Marlene Dumas, never really understood what the fuss was all about there. Jimmi Durham, archeologist sort of… no… anthropologist sort of from the ethnic side of things dealing with mainstream white society in his usual way I can well imagine. Benni Efrat, know a lot of his earlier works but not works from that sort of period. Peter Engels, always found the vague notion of his work a lot more interesting or what I read or saw of reproductions than the things themselves, seems a bit later than I thought they were, one of these badly constructed canvases that fall to pieces unless it’s something else. Jan Fabre, seem to have quite a large cross-section of works from throughout his career, variety of medium, shame it seems to concentrate a lot on the insect or the biro works because the other things seem to have more strength in them but hmm… suppose some of the insect or the biro drawings are ok. Robert Filiou, yes, more sort of a selection of audio discs related to the transfer of thought or learning or ideas. Herve Fischer, oh yes that work with the dirty mail artist his sociologique projets and his hand towel dispenser with a human hand, very sort of ‘Lascaux’ way, sprayed onto the fabric of the towel. Oh yes! And that Dan Flavin that we really must do a «little do they know », well it’s a multiple anyway, I should think we’d be allowed to do something with that, I mean rearrange it in some way. Jochen Gerz, well I can well imagine what that’s going to be: Zwart-wit fotos en tekst, hout en tekkst, hout’ yes I can well imagine, don’t really need to bother describing that. Jef Geys, well saw some of his works but wasn’t really quite sure what they were about or what his work is about generally, so it’s difficult to judge. Rodney Graham: ‘Continuous transformation of the form of a child’s sled into that of another’ does that mean the child or the sled, projection of diapositives or slides, not really clear to me, well it’s not a work I’m familiar with it’s from 2000 and doesn’t it all just make you think of ‘Rosebud’ from Citizen Kane, maybe that’s what the significance of the title is if you think of how Rodney Graham’s work operates. Well another one, a quite early one, no it’s Dan Graham, can’t quite remember if I did see that, because it’s photographs of videos or something, it’s not clear from the description of the medium given in Flemish, from the early 70’s, can’t quite remember if I saw that. Keith Haring, well it’s a piece I suppose at least would be amusing, than there’s some collaboration between him and some other people. Michael Harvey: ‘First sentence taken from Darwin-Origin of pieces CH3’. Gerard Hemsworth. Oh there’s somebody making a… ‘Francois Hers: ‘Hommage a Gordon Matta-Clark’, hmm… wouldn’t mind to see that, maybe it’s quite witty or amusing, maybe it’s someone who knew him because it’s 1980, not long after he died maybe had some dealings with him in Antwerp with ‘Office Baroque’. Albert Hien, no no, familiar name can sort of always imagine that kind of work actually even if you haven’t seen it. Craigie Horsefield, rather depressing but tasteful photographs, content rather incidental really if that’s sort of… if you know Craigie Horsefield: ‘Wieliczka. May 1994 (the artist before his patron). Philip Huyghe. Fabrice Hybert: ‘Portrait de l’homme de Bessine’, ‘Chantier’ and ‘Barrage’ sound like works on paper that don’t really quite do it for me in the ways that his major Works, some of them do have their moments. Here is some collective the name of which, at least sounds interesting: I AM YOU - Kunstenaars tegen geweld, some kind of printed folio project, know nothing about that. Alfredo Jaar, oh yes gold… probably something about gold prospectors in Latin America or something. Alan Jones: ‘Legs’, August ‘67, May ‘69, oh, should have looked out for that shouldn’t we. Donald Judd, oh yes those prints on paper that I thought could appear in any order and any way up but there’s no real challenge to doing whatever you want with Donald Judd works really is there? And also they weren’t exactly like historical sculptures, just some pseudo Japonaisery cuts or prints of some nature. Ilya Kabakov: ‘My Grandfather’s Shed’ and ‘In the Closet’, how does he manage to continue being creatively active and commercially successful making work about pre-Perestroika or pre-Glasnost Russia, I mean how does he do it? I mean just from his own sort of artistic, creative point of view, justify it and then exactly how does he manage to continue with the success, but anyway. Anish Kapoor, oh yes, that almost sort of religious-like quality and that sort of several different illusions to the recess or the hole in the stones filled in with blue, that actually does get sort of painted blue or pigmented blue, very sort of Yves Klein obvious reference that somehow or other seems to increase in space or it’s not clear in what way the actual sort of nature of the spatial change is but so much for that. Joseph Kosuth: ‘The world as I found it’ 1989, well again, not quite sure that work is from that period… There’s also a work by J.H.Kocman: Butterfly/locality, some sort of piece of interesting bookworks or ephemera, never really seen that, shouldn’t think that would be a really remarkable example of his work really. Barbara Kruger: ‘We Are Not What We Seem’ photograph of that woman taking out or putting in a glass eye and again that appearance to it… it’s not quite clear which part of… from which culture from the post-war, cold-war era it is being referenced y’know whether it’s, like, corporate advertising in America or Soviet totalitarian propaganda. Marie-Jo Lafontaine. Ah, Wolfgang Laib, that pollen floor, I was just wondering if you could maybe encourage spiders to build cobwebs nearby and the pollen would get incorporated in the cobwebs and into their genes, y’know, their genetic makeup, this has happened before. Bertrand Lavier, never really quite saw the point of most of his work, he seems to have done pretty well out of it hasn’t he. Ange Leccia: ‘Conversation’, oh yes, the thinking person’s Haim Steinbeck. Mark Lewis, those would be videos wouldn’t they somehow related to feature films. Ed Lipski, a friend of mine, ‘Rats’, oh yes those latex rats engaged rather a la Francis Bacon in sort of uncertainess to whether it’s some kind of red-hot-porno-action or just sort of Muybridge-esque sort of violence, oh he’s actually using make-up in those works not just that giant poodle. Jacques Lizene, can’t quite remember what that work was. Bernard Lohaus, why even bother. Lea Lublin, suppose those would be quite interesting but, of course, again they’re ones I don’t quite remember if I actually saw them. David Mach, oh yes, the Terry Wogan of contemporary British art. Pol Mara, well there’s always some tastefully noirish photo of some porno model to make out in those nouveau realiste painting efforts that he’s been churning out since the year dot, or even before then. Gordon Matta-Clark: ‘Office Baroque’, related work Cibachrome en tape, there again quite an interesting example of work that takes the form of documentation, the work itself is interesting Gordon Matta-Clark, these sort of real, active projects not just in terms of end results or the initial ideas but every single stage, every single level, every pun… no pun intented, interesting work ,well there’s never really anything you can say against the work, most works of Gordon Matta-Clark, is there. Allan McCollum: ‘100 Plaster Surrogates’, why not just have one, I mean you’ve seen one, you’ve seen ‘em all. Guy Mees, he’s a precious… his precious little interventions, yes for some reason I’m thinking of Jeff Geys… but if I am, I’m really sorry. Gerald Minkoff, a minor Swiss artist, a friend of John Armleder, that’s quite an early work, oh yes it’s ’Stempels en potlood op papier’, sort of mail art, rubber stamp sort of effort. Pieter Laurens Mol, don’t even bother, you don’t want to go there. Juan Munoz, oh yes that bronze, humpty-dumpty, skittle figure. Antonio Muntadas. Oh yes, Maurisio Nannuci: ‘This side is red’, well It’s not really an impressive example of his work but they do have the colours… from 1972, there are better. David Nash, well it’s very ruralistic British work, sort of like a cross between, like, land art or ecological art making scientific use of plants and their growth and, like, traditional woodcarving, very sort of new-agey, world music or art rather. Bruce Nauman: ‘Good Boy Bad Boy’, rather confusing, rather big edition for a video work 37 out of 40, hmm… quite a few, a lot of Bruce Nauman’s, ‘Violent Incident’ video and also ‘Cross Beams’: works on paper but not exactly like earlier works are they. Cady Noland, has anyone actually committed any violence against Cady Noland’s work? ‘cos it seems to sort of deal with that kind of vocabulary, iconography or objects. Maria Nordman, oh yes some sort of project for architecture or intervention, I should think: ’For a new City’. Gordon Onslow-Ford, well that would be very sort of ‘automatique’, abstract, surrealism, gestural, graphic effort, again, rather odd sort of choice for an artist for like a Belgian museum,but there you go… only one example of the work. Tony Oursler: uhmm… rather peaceful, I always found the work despite all the sort of connotations of drama or suffering or struggle or intensity, yeah, there’s something rather peaceful, isn’t there, very tranquil and relaxed. Bernard Pages, well I suppose that’d be some kind of formalistic malarkey. Oh yes, Panamarenko, well I suppose they would have quite a few works of his, well at least there’s some sort of early-ish things from the early 70’s, I’ll give it that much, oh.. .multiples: ‘Meganeudon’ and then a rather minor work, which makes you wonder why they bother having it, by Guilio Paolini: ‘Studio per Liber Veritatis’ just do it properly or not at all. Luca Maria Patella, yeah… can’t quite place or be bothered to, oh… pretty unbelievable number of them, I don’t know. Ah, Michelangelo Pistoletto: ‘Divisione e moltipicazione dello specchio’ the ornate, sort of framed antique mirrors meeting in a corner with that very infinite effect, it’s very timely of course, they’ve got that on view at the moment,because of the Pistoletto and Citte del Arte show that they have at the moment, I’ve never know if there’s more than one version of that work but it would be very interesting to have it in sort of very strategic places throughout the same exhibition space, I always thought, maybe if they could even face each other unless that’s against his wishes but then again, I’ve no idea if there’s more than one version or incarnation or example of that work..Always thought it would be interesting to do a?... no no no, I won’t actually say that ‘cos somebody might steal the idea. Fabrizio Plessi. Oh yes, Hermann Pitz. Fabrizio Plessi, I wonder what that actually entails, trying to cut through water or something. Patrick Raynaud: ‘Rollerbox’, again not really worth talking about. Martial Raysse could be worth talking about but it’s not really quite clear what sort of work that is from the description given, it’s really not very helpful or gives you very much to go on does it: ‘Zonder titel, s.d.’, Blik met expantieschuim, Martial Raysse… does some decent things I suppose, Martial Raysse. Osvaldo Romberg, again interesting that they have one example of a work by one of these artists that they have at least one example of work by: ‘Hommage to Rubens’ Acryl op doeck, ah, no photographs of original paintings. Ed Ruscha, oh it’s sort of publications, I wonder if these are displayed in a vitrine or something... yeah, I’m trying to see what have they actually got by him… really… pretty well represented here: ‘Hard Light Los Angeles’ 1978, well, not familiar with the later ones just the earlier: ‘Coloured People’ 1972; ‘Crackers’ ; ‘Hollywood’ 1969; ‘Real estate opportunities’, 1970; ‘Royal road test, Los Angeles’ 1962 a collaboration with Mason Williams and Patrick Blackwell, then: ‘Twenty six Gasoline stations’ then ‘Various small fries and milk’; ‘Some Los Angeles Apartments’; ‘The Sunset strip, Los Angeles’; ‘Nine’, I can’t even be bothered to read the dates; They’re not chronological unless it’s in an alphabetical order actually: ‘Nine swimming pools and a broken glass’; Thirty four parking lots in Los Angeles; ‘A few palm trees, Hollywood’; ‘Records, Hollywood’… That’s the book works by Ed Ruscha. Juliao Sarmento, oh, sort of real ‘hidden history’ sort of hmm… ritual and mythology worked into everyday domestic life sort of, hmm… sort of incomplete fragments of like indistinct scenario sort of drawings with very sort of stains on them, the best thing he did was he at least once actually did a video work and he got a porno film that was set in a factory you know in an industrial environment and all sexual activity or nudity was actually edited out but, of course, the scenarios or the behaviour of people would still appear strange? Always wish I could have seen that. Ah, Jean Schwind, yet another artist, oh no, they’ve also got some work by Jan J. Schoonhoven, one of the Zero group, no ‘Nul’ artists or are these just like works on paper or prints, can’t quite place them, I was always more familiar with his work in the form of ‘lectraleif’ oh, and these are referred to as being collaborative: (met Janneke Wesseling) so much for Jan J. Schoonhoven. Jean Schwind, again somebody else I know a bit about but not very much, I think it involved making pastiches or appropriations of fellow conceptual artists… hmmm?... must sort of check it out on the internet. Terry Setch who’s now a formalist painter, some sort of earlier work of his. Cindy Sherman… well it’s not exactly…. unless you know your Cindy Sherman Works because they’re always titled like ‘Untitled’ well it just says untitled here, ‘Untitled film still’ number something or other and these are 1983 you can’t exactly quite place exactly what they’d be so it’s very difficult to talk about them isn’t it? Ettore Spalleti, well known artist but not somebody I know about so I’m not really in a position to say. Jeffrey Steele, British artist, makes work with, like, mathematics, hmm… or have I got him mixed up with someone else, well, very formalist sort of abstraction, systems, possibly. Narcisse Tordoir, very sort of ludic, toy like, optimistic looking affairs, I can well imagine. André Tot, ah yes ephemera about being glad or happy, a protest march of people saying "I’m Glad if I…" etc. etc. David Tremlett, that’s a later work; That’s weird, Peter-Tremlett-Smith, something about a certificate. Anyway, after having spoken briefly about the sky space of Jim Turrell which I suppose is ok, didn’t strike me as a remarkable, as an amazing example of his work but I suppose there is something when you walk into it, but uhmm… there isn’t that quality to it, there’s no… it’s as though it’s some kid of fixture in the roof, isn’t it, y’know, even if you actually walk up to the aperture and get, like, rather proscribed, very enforced sense of being overwhelmed by the sky above you uhmm… I suppose it’s quite interesting, it can certainly be used in an emergency can’t it. But anyway after Jim Turrell there’s an unbelievable amount of Luc Tuymans, original works or editioned works then it’s somebody called Uri Tzaig: ‘Ahava soap balls’ whatever that is. And then Nicholas Uriburu some other sort of like, not exactly conceptual but somebody presenting their work in that sort of way, from the 70’s then Woody Van Amen, whose name I know, that’s why I’m mentioning him: ‘Quelle Heure est-il?’, that’s the name of the work, it’s from the 70’s, Neonobject but, ah… they have quite a few works by Patrick Van Caeckenbergh, 80’s, 90’s but I haven’t seen these works specifically so there’s nothing I can really say about them, uhmm… I haven’t actually seen these works however much I like Patrick Van Caeckenbergh’s work, there’s nothing I can really say about them. Philipe Van Snick, some work about Joseph Beuys and Marcel Broodthaers, I wonder if that’s ever been exhibited along with any of the later works by Marcel Broodthaers about Beuys, Broodthaers, Offenbach, and Wagner but again. Philipe Van Snick they’ve got a few works of his but I can’t quite place this work, what I was just saying there about the work, ‘J.Beuys, M.Broodthaers’, from 1986 is presumably just because Joseph Beuys died, oh and Joseph Beuys died on my fourteenth birthday or the news got printed on that day, the 23rd of January… oh yeah I also share the birth date of Eduard Manet although he was born 120 years before me, salvador Dali died on my birthday as well, the 23rd of January, it’s referred to as: ‘Waterverf op papier en foto’, I wonder if waterverf is watercolour. Well, they’ve got a few works by Ben Vautier with is prescriptions about the whole pragmatics of art or diatribes against other people, I suspect, not the more fluxus work. Oh, there is a rather fluxus work by Ben Vautier: ‘Piano Fluxusconcert’. Then there is Bill Vazan’s ‘Contacts’, the photocopies of contact sheets of people from all over the world, doing works involving an X or a + sign, or somehow or other dealing with the notion of the word ‘Contact’ and also some photos by him, I think I’ve seen them, called: ‘Four Suns’ and also the ‘Life Lines’ but Bill Vazan is like a Francophone Canadian artist, I think he’s like a photographer but I know the ‘Contacts’ even though it’s kind of obscure, I know the ‘Contacts’ very well, somewhre or other I’ve got a copy of the rather large book of all the reproductions of the contact sheets, ‘Contact’ about people making work about the notion of "contact". Jan Vercruysse, oh yes, they’ve got quite a few works by Jan Vercruysse, oh, you can say that again… oh yeah that’s uhmm… oh yeah, no more Jan Vercruysse but…. Ah, Claude Viallat, one of the French supports of facet artists: Textielverf op katoen, I bet that looks very festive, also something a bit sort of critical or white cube sort of contemporary art, heavyweight. Bernard Villers that’s sort of a familiar name but no real idea of what he does. Jean-Luc Vilmouth: ‘Aluminium’, well I know his work but can’t quite imagine what that would be. Barbara Visser, no I don’t know. Boyd Webb, I bet that’s gonna be some staged photograph, oh it’s a relatively recent work from 1999… I wonder if that means a light box: ‘Caisson lumineux’ but, I mean, he works in photography. Then there’s that work by Lawrence Weiner: ‘A city dragged, a city shored’, 1970, the text works, I think they’re up on the roof: ‘A city dragged, a city shored’, very strange how Lawrence Weiner always refers… when he’s in Holland or Belgium, always specifically seems to refer to canals, but anyway, Emmett Williams: ‘Logomotifs’, « A suite of five-colour prints to be looked at and read », well again that’s back to that concrete poetry, fluxus, mail art edition, he works in editions or multiples uhmmm… I mean they’re not really historical enough to be interesting and, of course I’ve not really seen them so I can’t really say anything for them or against them, I know very little about them. Oh yes, Bill Woodrow: ‘Bible Blood’, well that was that ensemble of that… some old shitty metal object cut up…. doesn’t he make you think of some kind of childrens conjurer trying to make all this work about social issues, now he lives somewhere in the middle of nowhere, like, does exhibitions in cathedrals or in trafalgar square, you know the suitcase had a bible made out of an old radiator or something, uhmm… bit newspaper cartoonish isn’t it, and then another Bill Woodrow called: ‘Television’ maybe made a television out of an old tin can or a washing machine or refrigerator or something. Gian Franco, well that’s all I can really say about that because I haven’t really seen it, again, it’s yet another work I’ve not really seen. Gian Franco Zappatini, well the name’s very familiar: ‘Sala A’, 1978, Zwart-wit foto?s, potlood en gouache op papier, well, I just haven’t got a clue what that would be so that’s all that can really be said about that isn’t it. Oh and finally one name on the whole sheet of paper, just consigned to the upper part and its Opy Zouni, no idea what country or culture that name belongs to but it’s just ‘Painting 96/126, ninety six a hundred and twenty six, 1985, Acryl op hout, that’s all that’s really said. Yes Certainly.
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