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| Interview : Christian Falsnaes by Soren Dahlgaard Please tell me about the overall narrative in your performance/show at Skånes Konstförening in Malmø. My performance basically depicts a transformation, not only of me, but also of the audience. I wanted us to travel together through my set-up. I was interested in the hero myth, its narrative structure and iconography. I knew from the beginning that there were certain things I wanted to include. There should be an ordinary world, a message, a threshold passing, a number of tests to be endured, a mentor, dark hooded shades, a magical weapon, an army of faceless clones, a transformation, a reconciliation and a return to the starting point transformed. The whole narration is absurd because it is completely clear that I am constructing the story myself and that all the obstructions are self-imposed. It is very desperate. The individual elements are samples of mythological iconography and stuff from contemporary pop culture mixed with my own strange visions. I find it important to create connections between the history of western culture, my history, and the reality that surrounds me. I saw the exhibition and video from the performance created on the opening night. I can see the references you mention in your installation / performance. It seems there is a bit of many things present? Yes, there is a whole bunch of references and elements from different sources in There and Back, but everything relates to the hero-myth and subsequently to the story of the white heterosexual male that is a recurrent theme in my work. I do fragmented works because my reality is fragmented. My identity and understanding of the world is put together by a vast amount of available information. The art I do reflects that condition. Your energy and personality in the performance/video comes through and leaves an impression. It was a great moment in the performance/video when the audience puts on the blue masks you gave them and looks at you. The audience in the video transforms. They are quite passive yet its very effective. I don’t believe in such thing as a passive audience. Even a traditional viewer/performer situation is a constructed set-up with roles on both sides. When I assign the audience tasks or give them costumes and put them in certain positions, I make everyone aware of the construction. Furthermore, I want to create a feeling that we are creating something together. I want the audience to play with me, to be a part of the game. Earlier, I wanted to control everything and feel safe and certain about what I did. Now, I rather want to be surprised and find out how it works along the way, because I have found out that the moment of interaction and improvisation is creative and productive. Thus, instead of planning a show, I construct a number of situations, put myself and the audience in them and see what comes out of it. You are a visual artist working with performance and from the performances you create installations, paintings, drawings, video and sculpture. Is this an approach you want to continue? Yes, probably. I am actually not specifically interested in performance, I am interested in art and art history and I feel myself connected to the history of visual art. Performance is just a form and a language in which I am able to communicate and experiment. I also do performance because it is very challenging and a lot of fun. Even though I sample existing material, my personal energy and urge to do art drive the works I create. I am a human and I am present in everything I do. That is performance. Your work seems very experimental, messy and trashy. In my opinion art should always be experimental. I consciously choose to have an experimental approach. My ideas often comes from just wanting to see what happens if I do this or that … and then I go out on the street and do it. You call my work messy, but I would prefer to call it complex or maybe fragmented. It may seem random at times, but there is a meaning to everything within it. When I build an exhibition, I feel like a little boy building a tree-house. I have so much fun and I build everything together with my friends. It is important for me to do it like that, from music to installations, because I find it more important to convey the energy and joy of doing it, than to have a sculpture with a perfect finish. What are your influences? Philosophy, computer games, art history, blockbuster movies, superhero comics, subculture phenomena, graffiti, mythology, identity, sexuality and the urge to play, to create and to change my surroundings. What is interesting at the moment in your opinion? There are a lot of exciting things going on at the moment. I see a great potential in community based art and so called user generated content. People creating and uploading videos to youtube and so on. That is a very interesting movement. In relation to performance art, I see a tendency to move away from sixties-inspired conceptual performance and hence a lot of different attempts to create performances that are relevant right now and uses a language that is based in the culture of right now. I will co-curate a performance festival in Stuttgart In December, where one of the aims is to highlight such tendencies. You have been based in Vienna for the last 5 years and before that 2 years in Zurich. Both places have an active performance scene as far as I know. The performance scene in Copenhagen/Denmark is very small and hardly has a tradition. You have to come to Copenhagen and do a show! When I moved to Zurich, I quickly became involved in the art scene and showed a lot of performances. When our house got evicted, I shortly moved back to Copenhagen. I was motivated, but it was impossible for me to find places to do performances at that time. Then I moved to Vienna and instantly felt institutional interest. In Vienna there is a different understanding of performance because of their history. I am doing well there and have a lot of possibilities, but I would love to show more in Copenhagen! Thank you! |
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