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I. Genzken: Well, at first I wanted to put blinds on the building. But when I do something Ive already
done before, I sometimes have a certain feeling of uncertainty. Although I am falling back on
something that I know is safe and pretty good. But then it was all too expensive. I had seen glowing
green, fresh bamboo at the KaDeWe store. It had attracted my attention and I thought it would be nice
to do something with it. Back home, sitting over the photo, dra wing some things on it, I remembered
this lovely green bamboo again and also that there w as this fascist building or partly fascist building
next to the store, a theatre, an ugly building. And then I thought, bamboo is politically correct, thats
just the thing. But I also think its visually beautiful. Simple. The work is called "Haare wachsen wie sie
w ollen" (hair gro ws the way it wants), and it matches the little Pavilion quite well.
W. Tillmans: And the bamboo, did you actually get it from KaDeWe?
I. Genzken: No. But its turned grey no w, that looks quite nice, too. Bamboo is normally yellow, and
theres something cheap about it, something touristy bamboo yellow. And no w the weather has
turned it grey from green to grey. Ive never seen anything like it, this colouring. The colouring
gradually adapts to the surroundings, thats good.
W. Tillmans: You overpainted a photo for this project?
I. Genzken: Yes.
W. Tillmans: Are photos often the starting point for ideas?
I. Genzken: Yes, for outdoor sculptures.
W. Tillmans: Al ways?
I. Genzken: Yes, almost always. You take a photo of the situation and then you think about whats
missing.
W. Tillmans: And is it important that they are your pictures? I mean, that they are your vie ws of the
situation that you work with? Or could people send you photos, too?
I. Genzken: Its better for me to see the situation and take the photo myself.
W. Tillmans: I am always astonished just how little you can see in professional interior views of
museums and so on. Although you are familiar with the rooms, the photos dont mean anything to
you. Although they are usually perfectly done. I prefer to work with a casual snapshot Ive taken
myself. How often do you have your camera with you?
I. Genzken: Well, when I get invited to do something, I pick it up and take it with me.
W. Tillmans: And other times? In the studio? Do you have a camera there?
I. Genzken: Very rarely. I have to really force myself to take photos of my ne w sculptures.
W. Tillmans: As notes?
I. Genzken: Yes, because thats important, too.
W. Tillmans: To see ho w far you are?
I. Genzken: Yes, I recently found some photos of my glass sculptures that sho w the ideas I started
out from. It is interesting to see.
unfortunately it often is. Thats why I like Bruce Nauman, for example, as a sculptor. With his work,
sometimes I have really thought to myself, thats simply beautiful.
W. Tillmans: Because he is someone who potentially always uses means that are already there?
Because his works are not made up of imaginatively devised forms
I. Genzken: Above all, it is difficult enough to depict something that moves you deep do wn inside. But
thats ultimately what art is all about, and thats also what appeals to people if an artist can do it.
W. Tillmans: And when the will to create art isnt the first thing you see, but rather
I. Genzken: Yes, exactly.
W. Tillmans: but rather when someone is really interested in something. Thats much more exciting,
w hen someone is interested in something, than w hen someone is only interested in the will to do
something. And, essentially, you can divide art into these t wo groups. One consists in the will to
sho w: I am making something. And the other arises from an immediate interest in the world and
things.
I. Genzken: I dont know ho w to put it its not easy to express it all, but thats why I dont like to
give interviews, either
W. Tillmans: What I just said, for example, is extremely trivialising, when you think, good grief, can
you really say that? But when I look at art, thats basically the way it works for me. Is it conceptual
art or not? Is it conceived or is it not conceived? Really, these are taboo areas that this takes you
into. Because you are not really supposed to say that
I. Genzken: But I think were a bit similar in that.
W. Tillmans: Do your photographs have a formal structure?
I. Genzken: The first pictures I took were the hi-fi systems, and, of course, they have to do with
sounds and music, and they have their o wn very strong form. Next I photographed the ears.
Something organic. Something from the inside out. Coming from the head. I did this ear series in New
York and I asked people, women, on the street if I could photograph their ear. Not a single woman
said no. Because I didnt ask for their face, but for something largely anonymous.
W. Tillmans: What kind of women were they?
I. Genzken: Well, just women on the street.
W. Tillmans: Women, then, you hardly knew and w hose ears you photographed right there and then?
I. Genzken: Yes.
W. Tillmans: I see. Really? On the street? Or did you arrange to meet them?
I. Genzken: No, on the street. It only took a moment. The women always said, what, my ear? Sure!
But I never offended anyone by examining them. It w as just the ear. And everyone thought that was
great. That was a nice experience. For me as a photographer, too. Of course, I did work with some
light and hair shining in the sun I tried to make the situation nice for the ear.
W. Tillmans: What role does self-portrait play?
I. Genzken: I did the X-rays after the hi-fis and the ears. Do you mean them?
W. Tillmans: Are they the first self-portraits? Because youve also got the photos in the clinic, those
black and white pictures.
I. Genzken: Oh, them. I had just had an operation, I w as totally bored and so I just took my camera and
took some pictures of myself. Out of boredom. I only realised after wards that this work was
something special. Taking photos in the clinic and publishing them in a catalogue it suddenly took on
a kind of seriousness. Everyones scared of clinics, and no-one wants to see what a clinic looks like
from the inside. Well not really. And everyones a bit scared of having to go there themselves. And
there I was in there. And I stand by it. And I used the clinic as a studio and started taking photos. And
then I felt better. Just because it let me do something.
Well, and the X-rays I was just interested in seeing what it looks like inside my head and the idea
that they could just examine the inside of my head like a globe. And then I photographed the faades
in New York.
W. Tillmans: That was at the end of the nineties, w asnt it?
I. Genzken: Yes. I did the books at the end of the nineties, and I did the faades shortly after that.
W. Tillmans: And you also did the photos in connection with the books because of an economy of
means, didnt you?
I. Genzken: Yes.
W. Tillmans: So it was like in the clinic, there was no studio, just the camera.
I. Genzken: Yes, exactly. Because Im a person w ho always has to do something. If I cannot do
anything, Im in a very bad way. But really Im always working on something. And I always want to
w ork, too.
W. Tillmans: Perhaps thats another thing we have in common? A certain obsession
I. Genzken: Yes, I think so, too
W. Tillmans: But perhaps all artists are like that
I. Genzken: Well, the fe w artists I know really well, they are all so Its a really bad block when you
think, right, now Ive got to do art. It really is very important to learn that that is not the most important
thing.
W. Tillmans: "Be satisfied here and no w" 2, thats w hat I have to keep telling myself. Then art will just
come along on its o wn.
I. Genzken: Yes, itll come along.
(Translation: Richard Watts)
First published in: Camera Austria, No. 81/2003, pp. 718.
Published by courtesy of Camera Austria.
1
Part of the title "Fuck the Bauhaus/New Buildings for New York".
Part of the joint title: "Science Fiction/Hier und jetzt zufrieden sein".