WEBVTT

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[Thomas Hirschhorn: "Gramsci Monument"]

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[Forest Houses, Bronx, New York]

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["Gramsci Monument" (2013)]

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[Opening of the "Gramsci Monument"]

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[July 1st - 10 am - 7 pm]


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Harry Drake: Alright, sorry to interrupt.

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This is the man of the hour.

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This is the man, besides Erik,
that brought everything to us.

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Yasmil Raymond: Thomas believes
that "more is more."

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You know, it's a pun on Mies van der Rohe,
who said, "less is more."

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And in this "more and more" philosoph
of Thomas Hirschhorn,

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it means an enormous amount
of activities all the time,

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almost confusing what is happening.

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Harry Drake: What you are doing
for this community and everything...

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Thomas Hirschhorn: No I don't...

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I don't do something for the community.

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I do something, I hope, for art...

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HD: Okay.

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TH: And the understanding of art.

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My goal is this.

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Lex Brown: Something Thomas always says

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is that did not come here
to, like, help people,

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he came here to Forest Houses
and asked people who lived here

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to help him make the artwork.

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And there's a really big difference.

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There's a huge difference
between those two things.

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Freddy Velez: Thomas asked me to translate
the Gramsci prison notes to Spanish.

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That was a great opportunity for me,

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and I just put retirement to the side
and just began working with his art.

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And here I am today, two months later,
enjoying myself every day

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and I feel a lot better.

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Janet Bethea: I was more stronger
than half of the men over there.

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I built those buildings.

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I did the dollies underneath there, 
on the floor.

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I did all that with the guys.

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Except for the roof.
I'm scared of heights.

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Stanley Scott: My name is "Stan the Man".

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- Stan the Man?
- Stan the Man.

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- Oh, I saw your sign.
- Yes, indeed.

NOTE Paragraph

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- And I work for love.
- We know.

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SS: It's not about the bills.

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It's not about the money.

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Anything I make, I make from my heart.

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You know, once your love is in it

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the money's going to come.

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That's why I joined the monument,
because it's like art.

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Food is like art. You know, cooking.

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Making something out of nothing.

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You know, making those dishes look good.

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Like, oh, that shit's pretty.

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Let's see if it tastes pretty.

NOTE Paragraph

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When people ask you:
"What is this project?" what do you say?

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Dannion Jordan: Well I walk them over
to the brochures...

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Janet Bethea:
It's a monument of something.

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Freddy Velez: A positive place
for art and study.

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Dannion Jordan: You know, 
they had a smoothie bar.

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Janet Bethea: They can go in the library,
read books.

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Dannion Jordan: A WiFi station up here...

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Erik Farmer: A monument 
usually is something

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that is stable, it doesn’t move.

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This is a temporary monument
— something I never heard of

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but Thomas explained to me, 
you know, what he wanted to do

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and how he wanted to integrate
the residents into the monument,

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as in giving them jobs

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and wanting to teach the kids about art.

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Dannion Jordan: He doesn't want anything
to interfere with his monument,

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Whether it's rain, Dia, Nycha...

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he doesn't want anything
to interfere with his project.

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If you're not interfering with his project
everything is good.

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What happens when you interfere?

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DJ: Yeah, he just...you know,
he gets crazy.

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He starts screaming,
uses his fingers and everything.

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TH: Sunday... Sunday even...

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Yasmil Raymond: 
Yes, but I'm here Saturday and Sunday...

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TH: I am the artist!

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Man: I look and see there's no one 
sitting in there first...

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HD: He'll be like, "No."

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Marcella Paradise: And if you can't stay
to three o’clock or four

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— which we stay till four all the time —

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you get put out the class.

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TH: Okay? We are not observers,
there is no observer.

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Harry Drake. Thomas is not white. 
He's not European.

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He's black.

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Marcus Green: I was very inspired 
by Thomas's poster.

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And on the poster it says, 
"All humans are intellectuals."

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So, the quote that I want to begin with
— which is quote number one —

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is taken from that notion.

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Lex Brown: Gramsci's idea 
that every person is an intellectual

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is an incredibly important idea.

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It's a huge part of the project

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and it is touched upon
in every part of it.

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Adam Guessongo: My name is Adam.

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I do graffiti, I draw,

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and I make sculpture.

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Or like, this, I'm not done with it yet...

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I'm not done with this, but I was trying
to make a character from a game.

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Dannion Jordan: 
You're learning, you're teaching,

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but it's more like people just...
you know, you got Thomas here.

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It's more about people gathering 
just still getting to learn one another.

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Because I don't really know
all these guys that I work with,

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I just know them through other people.

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You all get to know each other, 
you learn from each other,

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and, you know, that's basically it.

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[Destruction is difficult;
it is as difficult as creation]

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Erik Farmer: This is history right here

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because it's never been done.

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So when someone speaks about it
— someone may try to do it —

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but, at the end of the day, 
it was done at Forest Houses first.

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Big. Huge.

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[Quality should be attributed
to human beings, not to things.]

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Lex Brown: People have to come here,
to the monument, to see the monument.

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This project is site-specific
in the most true sense of that phrase.

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It's as important that this monument
will be here for two and a half months

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as it is that it will not be here
after two and a half months.

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There's an urgency to it.

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And without that urgency,
it would not be the same thing.

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Transcript by Amara Bot
Review by Margarida Ferreira