PRISKA PASQUER: Yes, we are currently in my gallery, Galerie Priska Pasquer in Cologne.
We are showing a Rudolf Bonvie exhibition that is opening today.
The exhibition is called “Dialog”.
My gallery specialises in 20th century and contemporary art
and always in a form that involves upheaval, i.e. 1920s and 1930s, 1970s,
and now works created after 2000.
And we are now exhibiting works by Rudolf Bonvie, one of the first ever media artists who,
back in the 1970s, explored the phenomenon of “pictures”,
how pictures affect us and how our perception changes,
how paparazzi use pictures, the power that pictures have
and that is the theme of this exhibition.
FERDINAND BRUEGGEMANN: Of course, anyone who works using media these days can no longer concentrate solely on the printed form.
The internet is the key medium that takes centre stage.
RUDOLF BONVIE: The most important thing, of course, is to find a kind of interaction between me and my followers.
This means that I am channelling the creativity of my followers into my work to a certain extent.
Ultimately, it all comes down to Joseph Beuys’ long-established idea that we are all artists in a way
and that is what we dreamed of in the 1970s and 1980s.
It is always a mixture between my works and the selected works of my followers.
This creates, again and again, new contexts between the individual works
and that is what I find so exciting.
That the work does not stem from me alone, but also from others, including younger people,
who naturally have another view of the world.
And here, I quote Nietzsche on death. These are all quotes from Zarathustra that I have integrated in this work.
There are many blogs on tumblr kept by depressives and potential suicides and these are following me now.
PRISKA PASQUER Does that work? How will people continue to relate to art?
Do they have to be able to touch it or is it enough to view it on the internet?
RUDOLF BONVIE: Young people today have another consciousness …
Something seems to have changed in their brains. They don’t get as tired so quickly …
And 30 years ago, the likes of us would not have been able to cope with such a flood of images.
FERDINAND BRÜGGEMANN: What exactly is the experiment now?
RUDOLF BONVIE: The experiment is simply this question:
Do my followers in Argentina or Brazil want to have the picture on their walls or is it enough to have it on their laptops? That is the question.
FERDINAND BRÜGGEMANN: Yes, the art “evangelist” – and she told us that the tumblr people thought that Rudolf Bonvie was in his mid-20s.
RUDOLF BONVIE: Yes, that was best!
PRISKA PASQUER: We live in a digital age and this age is all about sharing,
about being inclusive rather than exclusive
And with the 20 | 13 project, we are now trying to identify the kind of art that fits with this age.
And this exhibition marks the beginning of 20 | 13.