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STUDIO PROGRAM BERLIN BIRGIT BRENNER
"Freedom of the arts" - what a joke.
I think you only find freedom in the studio.
It's a great privilege to be able to create art,
you can focus on yourself all day, both positively and negatively.
But it isn't free, least of all for women.
It's just a big male capitalist playground,
in my own rather harsh opinion.
Free... where do you get freedom?
It's not independent either,
someone always decides what happens and what doesn't.
I'm quite disillusioned in this respect.
I hope that I'll be lucky and the gallery keeps working with me.
But I think you're only free when you are working here on your own.
I'm not really interested in anything else, to be honest.
Maybe I've become a little too...
I wouldn't call it "meek",
but I've been in the arts "business" for nearly 30 years,
20 years with the gallery and five years at university, a total of 25 years.
After all this time you're not quite as euphoric anymore.
I used to think it was free and independent, there was gender equality,
but eventually you find out that it's often equally as dirty
and as corrupt and unjust as any other system, which isn't surprising.
So I'm just trying to find my own way and place my work.
I honestly don't know how you could resolve this situation.
You should only create art if you have a genuine urge to do it,
if you really want it so much that you have no other option.
Otherwise it's just too hard, in my opinion.
It is a torturous business. I struggled financially for about 10 years.
The question is which path to pursue.
Do you stay true to yourself or deviate?
Do you want to deviate?
I've remained relatively stubborn.
I don't really care if my art sells.
It's a nice bonus, but when I'm in the studio I don't care at all
about whether it can be sold or not.
You have to keep working at it until you personally think it's right.
It would be disastrous for me to have one eye on money or saleability.
What would be the outcome? Nothing.
Unless you're extremely talented at making money, which I am not.
It is a competitive environment, as I'm also telling my students,
and 99 per cent of the time it ends in poverty.
You need to be aware of it. It comes with the territory.
I might be slightly old school in this respect.
It's part of being an artist that you work extremely hard,
and you need a great deal of luck.
And it's not just about money, we are also vain and want fame and glory.
Or to be exhibited, in order to complete a work.
To have a time frame by which the work must stand and is being shown.
Otherwise you just work yourself into the ground
without anything going public, that would drive you insane.
Not just for others to see, but to reflect upon it yourself:
What did I produce? What works? What doesn't work so well?
That's why I'm advocating more adventurous, riskier exhibitions with a broader range.
I never felt...
It's not nice being poor or fearing for your livelihood,
you really don't need that for your work.
I found the competitiveness exhausting, but that's just how it is.
It's the world we live in,
you don't want to live in some strange artificial artist's bubble.
That's why I'm slightly torn on this.
Everyone must find their own way.
I thought it was nice to be able to do something else and gather new material.
And when they're drunk in a bar,
you won't find any better material in terms of life's tragedies.
I'm annoyed that so few artists can make a living from it,
that there are so many great artists who can't live off their art.
This injustice is absurd, of course.
It's like a national team,
they occasionally invite a couple of new players to liven it up.
But I get the impression that it's more or less always the same group of people
who are getting the recognition.
My work usually centres around aspects of society,
be they fear of poverty, loneliness, plastic surgery,
religion, anything, but mostly the slightly tragic, sad stories.
I just have a personal affiliation with tragic
and also with comedy, but not with the pleasant aspects of life.
I like rummaging around in those traumas.
I mostly work with perishable materials.
I didn't plan it that way, it just happened.
But it's important to me to achieve a sketchy quality,
somewhere between a film set and a stage production.
It's therefore vital that it's moveable,
similar to a snapshot,
not something stable or finite like an everlasting truth.
That's why I chose cardboard in the end,
which was purely by accident, not planned.
It must have been in 1997
when I received my first studio funding.
I retained it until my professorship.
That was great. Studio funding should definitely be expanded.
Everyone should get a share, just dish it out.
Studio funding is really brilliant when you start out with virtually no money.
It was also important for me to have some contact with others,
knowing that you're not alone,
but part of a group of other fools who also make art.
For what can you produce in your own home?
It either smells of paint, or you need a goods lift.
You require certain conditions for your work.
You must be able to make noise and you need a goods lift.
Failing that, you can only make tiny things at home.
That's not a long term option.
Therefore, studio space is vital.
As are workshops.
The entire production environment around the studio should be subsidised.
Each profession has its working space, and artists are no different.
In most major cities, such as London, Paris, New York,
only very rich artists can afford to work in a central location.
Artists are a prominent feature that distinguishes Berlin.
The attractiveness. I was recently in New York
and was very happy to be there,
but all the fellow artists wanted to move to Berlin.
Artists are amongst the city's vital elements.
Berlin's image is characterised by its nightlife and its artists.
It is the subculture that defines Berlin.
Not the top artists who live here, but the subculture.
In general, I'd like to see art not just being used
to say stupid phrases like "poor, but sexy",
but to actually do something about it.
There is of course repression here which is an annoying antagonism.
If you utilise this potential you should also nourish it.
STUDIO PROGRAM BERLIN INTERVIEW WITH: BIRGIT BRENNER
subtitles: www.subtext-berlin.com