Русская версияDW-WORLD.DE: In descriptions of your work one often comes across
phrases like "the cloud principle of images," which sounds very
poetic.
Where are the borders between a light technician and an
artist such as yourself?
Well you really do begin to ask yourself that question. When you
take to look at something, if you are a technician, you try to
somehow reproduce or produce an image through an electronic medium
that is visible to others. I find myself often asking, what is an
image, and what can I do with it? What is happening with the image?
And when it bounces out from somewhere as a projection or when it
comes out of a screen, what happens then inside your head?
That means that when I think about these images, I'm thinking about
what makes them exciting for us. With what emotions do we respond
to the image? I think about the habitual image associations within
our minds, the links we make with images that are already known to
us. I ask myself where I can build on these types of things and how
I can influence them. These are the aspects that give us the power
to consider things in an imaginative way, and not just to "consume"
a picture.
When did you start considering emotion in your work?
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Andree Verleger called himself an artist of the imagination
It has been about five years now. Five years ago I thought to
myself, I really come from the background of an events organizer. I
was also a musician for 10 or 15 years prior to that. Then I
thought about working with visuals so I worked in organizing
events. But I started to find it boring, and it came to the point
where I felt that something new had to happen in the language of
images.
We needed to develop another language of images that simply does
not revolve around the flat surface of a screen or the reproduction
of an image on a wall. That was the point when I started asking
myself, how can I conduct images so that they become more alive, so
that they are maybe even physically tangible or can be understood
as metaphors?
I thought it was important to have a real connection with the
images so that we no longer feel "addressed" by the image, but
rather that we feel really moved -- in every sense of the word.
That was when I started experimenting with things like mechanical
images and tangible images. I thought about the relationship
between spectator and image and between performance artist and
image and the spectator.
That leads onto the topic of my next question: What is the role of
people in your concepts?
The most important role. I do not know anything more powerful than
an artist or performance artist standing on the stage who really
connects with the images and who transports the images to the
spectators -- because people identify with other people.
The artist on the stage has a power, like a kind of aura, that an
ordinary picture could never replace. That means that this bond,
this subtlety or this sensitivity to the spectacle then surpasses
the point where you could become distracted from it. The most
important factor is that one is not faced with easily consumable
pictures, rather -- and this is the "cloud principle" that I often
talk about -- it is most important that the images leave space for
the spectators to fill in with their own interpretations and
narratives, to develop their own internal cinema, like when you
read a book.
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People play a crucial part in the spectacles
You once said the artists act as the fingers of the audience, could
you explain that idea?
I like to interpret the performance artists as fingers because it
gives the sense of direct touch. The finger reaches out and touches
a direct point of contact. People say I often talk about emotions
or about things that touch people, and I really mean it in a
tangible sense, so that the spectators really sense that someone is
touching them inside their heads.
You were not allowed to work with your team in China. How do you
work around that? In the day-to-day politics of a nation, what is
the role of the artist?
My team, of course,
still works in Germany. I am not here (in China) permanently,
rather I am here for about 10 days and then gone for 10 days or
sometimes I am here for 14 days and in Germany for five. So I have
a huge changeover because production technicians in Germany are
completing things for me with my team. So it's a huge task for me
as I feel compelled -- although not in any negative sense -- to
take on the challenge of working with a Chinese team, and it's a
surprising experience.
Enjoyable on the one hand, although of course it's occasionally
strenuous. But on the other hand, it's really enriching because
when you work with your own team in your own country you end up
constantly treading the same paths, whereas here I have to learn
everything anew and I have got to know new ways of thinking. But
the main aim was to create something, and to create it with other
people. When I was asked a question I would respond with my own
more Western viewpoint, and my colleagues were very grateful for
that.
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His theaters of light have been presented in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and
Las Vegas
So do you feel that there was space for your own point of view, or
were you mainly serving someone else's way of thinking in preparing
the ceremony?
No, I did not feel that way at all, and it was not like that.
Rather, I would often give presentations to Zhang Yimou, the master
of ceremonies who is responsible for the grand opening, and he
would welcome these presentations with an open mind. I could tell
by his eyes whether they were things that interested him or not and
whether he would agree to take them onboard. It really worked out
well, and in the end Zhang Yimou told me that I really inspired
him. That was a very important factor -- that through my ideas I
really managed to inspire other people.
In your opinion, what kind of relationship should exist between art
and politics?
I try to tell my own story here. That means that I wasn't pressured
by the press or anything. I came here, was warmly welcomed
and worked with a team. I tried to implement my own visions. Our
working relationship was not built on politics, we were moving in
the space "between the lines" so to speak. I was given total
freedom to pursue and express my ideas and politics was not an
issue in our day-to-day work together.
(Deutsche Welle)
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