0:00VOICEOVER: Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. The US Department of State Office of Art in
0:05Embassies, the Aspen Institute, the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars,
0:11and the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center
0:14are pleased to present a conversation with the honorees
0:19featuring moderator Glenn Lowry, Director at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Our
0:26opening act this evening is poet and performer Marc Bamuthi
0:31Joseph. JOSEPH: Hi! You can applaud, it’s all good!
0:40(audience applause) JOSEPH: I know we’re in a hallowed environment
0:47and everything but we’re also I think celebrating a
0:54vessel for reciprocity that demands that you do as much work as I do, okay? Yes?
1:00AUDIENCE: Yes. JOSEPH: Cool, great! So it’ll work if you
1:03do stuff like applaud and giggle. Cool. Love it! Cool.
1:11(audience applause, laughter) JOSEPH: Our ancestors hacked bitterly at sugarcane.
1:21We are the sweet never tasted by their sweatsoaked tongues. They begged for us to be here never
1:30knowing who or what we’d become. We are their
1:36echoing elegy perpetually sung we are their echoing elegy … I was in Haiti once, at this vodou ceremony
1:57and I passed out. Personally I think I seen a little bit of blood and I just (noise) you
2:03know, like a little Beyoncé. But the people I was with, folks
2:10who all honor and respect Haitian culture believed that I had
2:16been possessed. They said I fell, like this (demonstrates).
2:29A pawn or a priest, either is possible. Who knows where your body goes when the spirit
2:43flies away. When you lose your mind, what jumps in to
2:50take its place? The Haitians called me “ne-gi-ne”(?). My
2:57granmè, my oldest living relative, once told me that “gi-ne” is the tunnel that connects
3:02Haiti to Africa, so when a Haitian calls you “ne-gi-ne”, that’s
3:08the real shit. (audience laughter)
3:12JOSEPH: That’s like super black. It’s true. It’s like a stripe. I wonder what
3:22they’d say if they knew my kid was half Chinese and my girlfriend was white.
3:27This story begins in the middle, halfway across the planet.
3:35I think that I’m awake. Last night at dusk I took a red-eye across the Atlantic, I landed
3:43on the first morning of summer in Europe. For the last
3:47forty-something hours it’s been day. I think I might be
3:51dreaming but I’m not sure. I’m in Paris for a festival for contemporary
3:59choreographers from Africa. By the grace of god I get to
4:03watch. It’s one of the perks I’ve managed to convince the performing arts machine that
4:08I am both high arts and hip-hop. Shh. (laughs) Don’t tell
4:14em. I’m stuck. I’m in between. Last row of the audience falling
4:21up, waking dream. In Paris I represent my country in the flesh. I am the surrogate for
4:31Allen Iverson and 50 Cent. What good is a black man in America
4:37if stripped of his right to threats? How hip-hop can I be if
4:44they let me on today’s set? Anyway! As a guest of the institution I’m
4:51at this festival and on the first night is this soloist from South
4:54Africa. She does this joint where she puts on this Easter Bunny costume head thing and
5:01a pink tutu and like Pippy Longstocking tights and a pointe
5:06shoe and a Converse okay? And she performs this piece
5:12where she climbs in and out of a plastic bag yeah—
5:20(audience applause) JOSEPH: Yeah for like 20 minutes, okay? And
5:28then she walks into the audience with saran wrap and she
5:32puts it over people’s mouths (kissing noise) and she kisses them over their dental dam-ed
5:39lips (kissing noise) for like another 20 minutes. And then
5:46it ends. That’s it. In my head, the vision of South Africa is
5:55Robben Island. Stephen Biko. In my head it is always the late 80s
6:03and Nelson Mandela is the first person that I ever truly wanted to be free. The first
6:08major metaphor for liberating me. The triangle of perspective
6:14is crazy. I’m looking at this African woman for some sense of
6:18root. She’s looking at European performance art trading in a mandala for a frayed pink
6:24tutu and Europeans have always been looking at me ever
6:28since my name was Langston Satchmo Josephine. Since
6:33the days when they bred me. I am the descendants of an experiment in psyche and body, a fetish
6:41taking my place in line, fractured, wondering when
6:44this woman’s history stopped being mine. I’ve been flying
6:47for the last forty-something hours, I am no sense of time, I’m just wondering which
6:50one of us is asleep and which one is just tired.
7:00And then. Exactly right then. I fall. This story begins in the middle, halfway across
7:17the planet. I think that I’m awake. Last night at dusk I took a red-eye
7:26across the Pacific and landed on the first morning of
7:29summer in Japan. For the last forty-something hours it’s been day. I think I might be
7:38dreaming but I’m not sure. I’m a living word lost in translation.
7:43I guess this is a near death experience. I’m at the club in Japan. Everybody in hip-hop
7:52knows that the culture is huge over here, mostly cause we
7:55seen it on a Yo MTV Raps interview with the Wu-Tang Clan. Tokyo is like Times Square times
8:01ten. Midnight feels like 11 a.m. plugged into a
8:04socket. My hosts are all hip-hop kids, they insist, tired as I am,
8:10I roll with them to the spot. I lead with my ego. I think, why not. I imagine that when
8:18I enter the club, the music will stop. The rivers will part. The
8:27reverence will begin. Behold! Japanese motherloves that sweat
8:34my culture, authenticity is in the building! It’s me, thank you!
8:42(audience laughter, light applause) JOSEPH: Born in 1975 in Queens, Tribe Called
8:47Quest, Niles, Run DMC, the real hip-hop is obviously
8:50oozing from all of my pores for all to see and all… ignore me. I am the only black
9:03dude in the room except for the ones we’re all listening
9:07to. I’m either so racist or so self-absorbed or oblivious that I
9:15imagine some kind of props are due. Fist up. Head nods. Eye contact. None of that. I’m
9:32invisible. Race doesn’t matter. I am just another guy that
9:37might be a little too old to be at the club. (audience laughter)
9:43JOSEPH: And in the great tradition of the wrong guy at the right party, I retired to
9:50a corner, the music still bumping, but I ain’t been asleep since
9:57yester-something and I fall … This story begins in the middle. With the
10:08first African American woman I ever met. Was a white chick
10:14from Lubbock, Texas. Molly Melching, bigaman? She moved to Senegal 20 years ago to work
10:22for UNESCO and she never left. She married a Senegalese
10:26man, had a daughter, was happy. Until he left. Molly
10:31speaks Worlof, Tree, she’s a beast negotiator at the marketplace, geared down, highly respected
10:38in her community. The Senegalese that I met refer
10:40to Molly as an African American. They refer to me as a black
10:47American. When I get off the plane in Senegal, I don’t know if we have plans, I don’t
10:51have much money, I have Molly’s number in my back pocket given
10:54to me by friends of friends, I have ideas in my head also
10:57given to me by friends of friends. They said, boy, in Africa, they will love you! Just find
11:03a dance, just find a hip-hop, somebody will adopt you, take you
11:05in, don’t worry, don’t trip! Three days into my trip, I been hustled out
11:12of my drawers. And I’m spending money at a rate that’s
11:14going to leave me homeless in eight days. And I got one of them non-transferrable, non-fuck-with-able
11:19tickets, says I got to be here for four months. In tears, I call Molly. She invites me to
11:27her home in Thies, she says I can stay. Not quite the African
11:31I thought was gonna take me in. Molly works for an NGO called
11:36Toastan. She’s a champion of women’s health, she wants to fight against female circumcision
11:41in rural villages, she calls it mutilation.
11:46I become her roadie. I sit in the back seat gazing at endless stretches of endless flatland
11:54and wide open sky as we ride from one end of the country
11:58to the other. We ride to the middle of nowhere. Nowhere.
12:04Come to a stop in front of a single-stone building with a thatched roof, three girls
12:07come out all smiles and grace, I think cool, Molly’s gonna meet
12:10with them and then we’re going to be out. And then this boy
12:13comes out and he starts playing a drum, which I think is kind of annoying to have going
12:18on during a meeting but you know who the hell am I, the
12:21American. You know, I just smile and listen for my name,
12:24take it all in. All of the nowhere. Africa. This kid playing the drum, apparently he’s
12:36this village’s version of a mass email because I don’t know where
12:39the hell these people come from but like a hundred thousand
12:42people storm the courtyard, it’s like the Rose Bowl on New Year’s Day and they’ve
12:47all come to see the circus in town which is namely the big white
12:51African and her short clueless American friend. Molly is still on her propaganda about this
12:56backwards indigenous ritual but nobody can hear anything
12:58because of all the commotion, all the people, everybody trying to see the one white woman
13:03within a thousand miles. Finally Molly comes out she
13:06says, Bamuthi, I need you to distract them. (audience laughter)
13:12JOSEPH: Molly, I’m a poet. And they don’t speak English. I ain’t got no microphone,
13:20no megaphone, no radio, no telephone, whatever, I’m gonna
13:23keep them distracted with, I’m withering here, yeah what
13:32(yelling) … Five minutes later. The entire village. I’m surrounded. My heart pounding.
13:48Africa. Okay. I don’t need to astound them. Only distract.
14:04No microphone, no radio, no English. That’s cool. That’s cool.
14:15See, my whole act, to survive, I’ve become hip-hop empath. I channel the low beginnings,
14:31fires burning all over the Bronx, post-Civil Rights, glass
14:35ceilings no lights, no moot, just do what you feel to the groove,
14:39a dance floor uprising of youth! I just pray that they buy it.
14:44(quickly) It’s the future aesthetic, the future’s not static, it’s moving kinetically
14:50manically mimicking cynical smears that works with flares with
14:53words the world is this magnanimous moment a future
14:56aesthetic a mythic poetic cerebral kisetic it’s not in your head or your heart or your
14:58feet it exists in all three! Wooh! Okay, they’re buying it!
15:06(audience applause) While I’m cracking them up with my shamrocks,
15:13Molly is speaking in a language that I’ve never heard of.
15:18She convinces the council of elders to abandon a centuries-old practice, encourages them
15:23to modernize their attitude towards women. Molly extended
15:31me. That’s how I became an emcee without saying a
15:39word. It’s ethereal, lyrical, miracle, biblical, spiritual, it’s a it’s a it’s a (scratch)
15:43ethereal it’s ethereal it’s ethereal lyrical (record scratch) it’s ethereal
15:46lyrical miracle almost biblical (DJ record scratching) Is it
15:47real? Oh! Oh my! Thank you. (audience applause)
15:49BREAK (music plays)
15:49TEXT: “Opening America’s doors to students and professional artists provides the kind
15:53of two-way cultural understanding that can break down
15:57the barriers that feed hatred and fear.” PRESIDENT OBAMA
15:57ART IN EMBASSIES INTRIGUES
15:57EDUCATES AND CONNECTS
15:57PLAYING AN AMBASSADORIAL ROLE AS IMPORTANT AS THAT SERVED
15:58BY TRADITIONAL DIPLOMACY – SECRETARY OF STATE HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON
15:58ART IN EMBASSIES US DEPARTMENT OF STATE
15:58CREATIVITY COLLABORATION
15:58CULTURAL DIPLOMACY ART IN EMBASSIES
15:58IS A LANDMARK PUBLIC-PRIVATE PARTNERSHIP BETWEEN THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT
15:58AND THE AMERICAN AND INTERNATIONAL ART COMMUNITIES ARTIST: Okay, let’s level here so you pull
15:59up! 1953
15:59INITIATED BY THE MUSEUM OF MODERN ART ESTABLISHED BY PRESIDENT KENNEDY A DECADE
16:03LATER IT’S NOW A GLOBAL PROGRAM
16:05WITH A FOCUS ON CONTEMPORARY VISUAL ARTS IN OVER 200 DIPLOMATIC VENUES
16:07IN 180 COUNTRIES PERMANENT COLLECTIONS
16:07TEMPORARY EXHIBITIONS ARTIST EXCHANGE
16:07PUBLICATIONS MORE THAN 20,000 ARTISTS
16:07GALLERIES MUSEUMS
16:07COLLECTORS UNIVERSITIES & FOUNDATIONS
16:07TODAY THE CORE MISSION HAS BROADENED FOR A RICHER CULTURAL EXCHANGE
16:08BETWEEN ARTISTS AND HOST COUNTRIES ARTIST: This work has been in North Carolina,
16:11New York, it’s on a constant journey. But now it’s got a
16:12final resting place here in Madagascar. ART IN EMBASSIES
16:12FOSTERS GREATER UNDERSTANDING AND CELEBRATES THE CREATIVE SPIRIT
16:12IN ALL OF US ART IN EMBASSIES
16:50US DEPARTMENT OF STATE Kennedy image courtesy of John Fitzgerald
18:24Kennedy Library (music plays)
19:02VOICEOVER: Please welcome the honorable Jane Harman, director, president and CEO of the
19:17Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.
19:23HARMAN: Well after that opening act, I feel like one of the dullest, pinkest, most boring
19:33people on the planet. But I am here to welcome you to what
19:38will be a wonderful event and to thank the International
19:41Trade Center, the Art in Embassies Program, and the Aspen Institute—my dear friend Elliot
19:47Gerson is somewhere down there—for partnering with
19:51us on this event. Let me say something about Beth Dozoretz,
19:58the ambassador for the Art in Embassies Program. She
20:03came by the Wilson Center recently and said, I have this idea. What would you think about
20:08five or six of the greatest artists in America having, or
20:12on the planet, having a conversation about art at the Wilson
20:15Center. And she could barely get that out, I said, yes! Because what is so little-understood
20:22is how important culture is as a foreign policy tool,
20:28and how under-utilized it is as a foreign policy tool.
20:31I, some of you may know I served in our Congress for nine terms. I am a recovering politician
20:38and left voluntarily, not involuntarily, last year
20:42to take up this amazing plum job. And I know from the travels I
20:50made in Congress, all over the world to garden spots like Libya, Syria, North Korea, etc.,
20:56but also to somewhat nicer venues, how critical this program
21:02is to showcase what America stands for in our
21:06embassies. And how important art is as an education tool, as a way to knit civilization
21:14together everywhere in the world and I’ll just take
21:17this moment to pitch a big audience for more funding for the
21:23arts and for the Arts in Embassies program! (audience applause)
21:30And I thought you should know that just down the road here in the post office building
21:35is the headquarters of the NEA, the National Endowment
21:37for the Arts, headed by a wonderful free-form called
21:42Rocco Landesman. And he told me recently that the funding for the NEA, get this, everyone
21:50sit down and focus on this, this is our national arts
21:54program, is $146 million for a country of over $300 million
22:01people. Do the math. That is under fifty cents a person to bring substance, sustenance to
22:09the people who live in the United States of America.
22:11Did you know that the budget for Skyfall, the new Bond movie,
22:16was more than that? So I put that out there and I put out there how critical this program
22:23is and how beautiful, if you were watching the slideshow
22:27which I was watching, is the art that these artists whom
22:31you will hear from in a minute, bring to us and bring to this program.
22:38And it is very important at a time when the world seems more dangerous than ever and when
22:44US embassies look like fortresses, that we can
22:47showcase in them some beauty like the beauty that you saw
22:53in the slideshow and like the beauty that will be discussed by these artists so as an
22:58arts lover myself, who was married for over 30 years a guy named
23:03Sidney Harman who always used to say, what a
23:05coincidence that the Sidney Harman Hall in Washington has the same name I do, and who
23:11quoted poetry at the drop of a hat, I revere this
23:15stuff. And yes, Beth, yes. Just ask me again. Thank you very
23:21much and please welcome Virginia Shore! (audience applause)
23:29SHORE: Good evening, thank you all for coming. Thank you, Jane, thank you to the rest of
23:42the Wilson Center team, the Aspen team, Elliot, Mary
23:46Elenna, Damien Puono. Thank you, Beth, Beth Dozoretz, our
23:50director. And I also of course, I want to thank the artists, the five incredible artists
23:58that I’ve luckily had the opportunity to work with over the years
24:01and to all the artists in the room who have worked with our
24:04program over the years. The video you just watched gave you a glimpse
24:09of Art in Embassies today. Art in Embassies has changed.
24:14Over the past decade, our program has grown immensely and we’re incredibly proud of
24:19the way our program has changed in terms of now we only
24:23work we don’t only work with American artist we
24:25actually work with artists from the host country. It’s now a program not just about America,
24:32it’s about cross-cultural exchange.
24:35We now do artist exchanges. In the past decade we’ve done over a hundred cultural exchanges
24:41and we’re going to continue doing the cultural
24:45exchanges, this has become a new focus for the program.
24:49Acquisitions has become a new part of our program. We now oversee all the new permanent
24:54embassies & consulates around the world. So two-way
24:59cultural exchange has become the core of the mission. And
25:02that’s basically all we wanted to say tonight! Thank you so much for joining us, and we’ll
25:08go ahead and jump into the conversation, what we’re all
25:10here for. So connecting us back to our roots, a man who
25:15needs no introduction, the director of the Museum of Modern Art, Mister Glenn Lowry.
25:30(audience applause) (voiceover laughter)
25:39SIKANDER: Do we have an order? LOWRY: I don’t know that we have an order,
25:48I think we’ll just take it as it comes. And I’ll try and
25:51remember where everybody is sitting. (muffled voices, other noises)
25:56LOWRY: So good evening. I’m Glenn Lowry and I’m delighted to be sharing the stage
26:02with five extraordinary artists to celebrate not only
26:07their work and their achievement and their recognition by the
26:11Art in Embassies program, but the fifty years of this remarkable effort on the part of this
26:17country to underscore the importance of the arts to us
26:22as people and to our dialogue and friendship with those
26:26around the world. It is an important moment especially for me,
26:33representing the Museum of Modern Art, because the Art
26:35in Embassies program was born in part through the Museum of Modern Art in its very early
26:40years. And I just want to say that no one then I’m sure
26:44could have envisioned, Beth, what this has grown into. You
26:48and your incredible team have done an astounding job and I think the work that you were able
26:53to see earlier this evening is a small reflection
26:59of the many great things that you have made possible.
27:03So with me tonight are five artists whose work I admire enormously. Cai Guo-Qiang and
27:12Cai is in the midst and maybe he’ll tell us about it in
27:14a moment he’s in the midst of preparing for tomorrow that will
27:18help celebrate another institution, the Sackler Gallery, as it marks its (silence)—
27:25[Shahzia Sikander is] extraordinary artist from Pakistan now living in the United States
27:33who revived, I won’t say single-handedly, but who certainly
27:36was instrumental in the revival of an old tradition,
27:41miniature painting, but investing it with new meanings and new possibilities that continue
27:45to resonate today and that have affected an enormous number
27:49of artists throughout the Middle East, Pakistan and
27:53India. Jeff Koons who we count as one of our own
27:57who, before he became the celebrated artist that he is had a
28:01brief moment at the Museum of Modern Art where his work is still legendary but who has gone
28:07on to be one of the most celebrated and important artists
28:10working anywhere in the world and whose sculpture, paintings and ideas form the backbone of an
28:17intense conversation about surrealism as well as pop art
28:21can be in the 21st century. Carrie Mae Weems who’s been a voice for
28:27the power of women, of identity, and of race, who’s tackled
28:32some of the most difficult issues around and who’s always done so with an elegance and
28:39grace. I count as a great friend.
28:43And Kiki Smith, who has managed in her work to discover mysteries and spirits and ideas
28:51that we didn’t know existed. Who, like Carrie, is willing
28:55to tackle questions of identity, and of gender but who also has
29:01brought forth the pleasures of thinking about the environment and ecology and whose work
29:07never ceases to surprise me. So you can imagine
29:10how honored I am to be here. So let me start, Cai, with a question to you.
29:16You embody, I think, much of what this program stands for—
29:21cultural exchange and the openness to the ideas from different places and different
29:25peoples. What is it like to be preparing a major work for the
29:30Mall here in Washington? GUO-QIANG: (speaking Mandarin)
29:41TRANSLATOR: Because the project I’m working on is co-organized by Art in Embassies and
29:52also the Sackler Gallery…
29:56GUO-QIANG: (speaking Mandarin) TRANSLATOR: And since their birthdays fall
30:05on the holiday season I decided to choose a Christmas tree.
30:10And then on this forty-feet-tall Christmas tree I’m putting over 2,000 fireworks on
30:16the tree. And during the explosion there will be free admission.
30:20GUO-QIANG: (speaking Mandarin) TRANSLATOR: So the first explosion lasts 1.5
30:27seconds and goes (noises) from bottom to top. (audience laughter)
30:32GUO-QIANG: (speaking Mandarin) TRANSLATOR: And when the smoke clears slightly
30:38there will be a tree lighting ceremony where the
30:41smoke (silence) for five seconds. GUO-QIANG: (speaking Mandarin)
30:47TRANSLATOR: And for the third time, when the smoke completely clears, all the fireworks
30:55will go ‘boom’ and then you see a clear tree.
31:00GUO-QIANG: (speaking Mandarin) TRANSLATOR: So I’m hoping the tree will
31:07look like a film negative of a Christmas tree (silence) day.
31:12GUO-QIANG: (speaking Mandarin) TRANSLATOR: And I’m hoping at the end of
31:21the explosion, you have two trees: one real tree, another
31:25cloud smoke tree that’s drifting away. So we have one real tree and one virtual tree.
31:30GUO-QIANG: (speaking Mandarin) TRANSLATOR: So I’m praying for the wind
31:34tomorrow. (audience laughter)
31:35GUO-QIANG: (speaking Mandarin) TRANSLATOR: So if the wind is really high
31:40and the smoke drifts off really quickly, your eyeballs will have
31:43to roll more quickly too. (audience laughter)
31:46LOWRY: What time will it take place, Cai? GUO-QIANG: (speaking Mandarin)
31:51TRANSLATOR: Three in the afternoon. GUO-QIANG: (speaking Mandarin)
31:55TRANSLATOR: Don’t be late! GUO-QIANG: (speaking Mandarin)
31:57TRANSLATOR: Because it’s incredibly hard to get permits in Washington, DC! So there’s
32:02lots of traffic control hurdles to be leapt over.
32:05(audience laughter) LOWRY: Three o’clock! If you’re working,
32:08take time off. If you’re not working, be there, it will be
32:13fantastic. Jeff, you’ve had, you’ve worked all over the world, your sculpture is legendary.
32:19How did you come about selecting the work that you did
32:22for the embassy in Beijing? KOONS: Glenn, I thought about, which pieces
32:32at that moment were finished, available. And the Tulips
32:37just seemed like it would be a wonderful choice for the reflection pond. And so, myself and
32:44my wife, we offered the Tulips to go and so it was agreed
32:50that the embassy would show Tulips. But I have to say—
32:53when I saw the photographs of the work installed, and I saw the large scholar stones that were
33:01around the piece, I was so moved. It was the most
33:05ideal setting I could imagine. Not just with the architecture
33:09and the reflection pond, but then to have these large scholar stones there. But it was
33:15just organic, thinking about work that would symbolize optimism,
33:21you know, the Tulips creates like a rainbow, and
33:24it’s, you know, an optimistic piece. LOWRY: They’re part of your celebration
33:28series, aren’t they? KOONS: Ah yes, yeah.
33:30LOWRY: Do you want to talk a little bit about that, because I think that’s one of the
33:34great achievements that you’ve been working on now for quite
33:37a while, and what’s the genesis of that series and what does
33:41it try to do? KOONS: I would have to say my work in general
33:47but I would think with the celebration series I started to
33:51really try to focus on just connecting with archetypal imagery. And to just follow my
33:59interests and focus on those interests. But everything else has
34:06an aspect of tied to a cyclical year so tulips are kind of a
34:11symbol of spring. Other works from that series, a hanging heart could maybe be Valentine’s
34:16Day, or you could associate a cracked egg or something
34:21maybe Easter. But an aspect of cyclical time. But everything
34:25is a little larger, a little mythic in scale. And so Tulips was part of that series.
34:33LOWRY: Carrie, I was struck by something that you said at some point and I can’t even
34:40remember where and when but in talking about your work where
34:45you were discussing that you’ve come to address issues
34:48of love and other matters, but your work is always about race. And you… and Carrie’s
34:55work, if you don’t know it, often uses text and images, images
34:59that you take yourself but find, texts that you write and find
35:05as well. How did you come to use these different sort of almost intersecting strategies, the
35:15word and the image?
35:16WEEMS: That’s a long story. I probably think more of it is you know I think that my work
35:29is really focused in the area of unrequited love. I think all
35:37those other issues, issues of race and gender and so forth are
35:41really subordinate to this other, deeper idea, really complex idea about the struggle and
35:47the battle for love and affection and desire and need and
35:52want. So I’m always sort of grappling with those ideas. But
35:57early on when I was a student I had a really wonderful teacher, we fought a great deal
36:04which is, I have a history of fighting with lots of people—
36:07LOWRY: She may look mild-mannered up here but—
36:09WEEMS: (laughs) But we had these really sort of great talks about photography and one day
36:16you know he said to me, so what’s the about. And
36:19I said, it’s obvious, you can tell, and a picture’s worth a
36:22thousand words. And he said yes, that’s true, but which thousand are you talking about
36:26specifically? (laughter) i
36:28WEEMS: And so it was a question, it was a question, it was a challenge, and I’ve been
36:34for a long time then making work based in image and text.
36:41Though for the last many years actually I haven’t, I haven’t
36:44really been doing that so much, though I continue to write a great deal in relationship to the
36:49work. LOWRY: You’ve been doing a lot of video
36:51work. WEEMS: I’ve been doing a lot of video work.
36:53And I think actually that gives me that opportunity to play
36:56with ideas about sound and voice. And I have a chance to work with musicians and of course
37:03in this context, in the American embassy context,
37:06you know, artists were very very important, musicians were
37:10very important in the early years of Arts in Embassies programs around the world. The
37:17sort of great great great music of people like Dizzy Gillespie
37:20and Armstrong and et cetera, they were really really
37:24important. That book, Satchmo Blows Away the World, was absolutely critical in understanding
37:30the role of artists, music, literature, in (silence)
37:35in cultural diplomacy. And so it’s sort of wonderful that I get a
37:38chance now to work with musicians as I do my own work and tomorrow night thanks to Virginia,
37:45Virginia Shore, who I’ve now known for many many
37:49years, I love working with this program, I get a chance to
37:52work with the amazing artist and pianist Jason Moran. So we sort of work out some ideas around
37:58sound and image and word.
38:00LOWRY: And I do think we should give Virginia a huge round of applause for the work she
38:06does. (applause)
38:11LOWRY: But pause for a moment: Madagascar. WEEMS: I know! Amazing, right? You know, I’ve
38:18always wanted to go there too. LOWRY: And did you get to go?
38:21WEEMS: No, I haven’t. LOWRY: But your work is there—
38:24WEEMS: My work is there and so I’m happy with that. However it is also in Mali so that’s
38:29fabulous and I’ve been to Mali. And in fact the images
38:35that are used in the embassy there are photographs that were
38:38made in this great great great great ancient city of (?) in northern Mali and I’m very
38:44pleased that the work is there and it’s (silence)
38:49LOWRY: Shahzia, you have the pleasure of being from Pakistan, living in the states, but having
38:55your work as part of the Art in Embassies program
38:58in Pakistan. Did you think about what work would be
39:02appropriate for the embassy? SIKANDER: Actually the work that I did, I
39:08definitely thought about it. LOWRY: Do you want to share the title with
39:12us, because I think it’s important. SIKANDER: ‘I Am Also Not My Own Enemy’.
39:17And you know I think a lot of my work is really about
39:23translation, the distance between the original or the idea of the original and what may be,
39:35an interpretation or something even. And what
39:39is that distance. And I think even in this particular work, ‘I
39:44Am Also Not My Own Enemy,’ it opens up that dialogue. Like who is the enemy here or not.
39:53And it also refers actually to Mirza Ghalib, a phrase,
40:00a poet, text borrowed from his language. And again it’s in Urdu
40:07but it’s written in English. And the way it’s painted also is it references the U.S.
40:17colors. LOWRY: The what has always struck me as so
40:21interesting about your work is how you’ve taken this older
40:27language, the language of miniature painting, and found new ways to invest it with stories.
40:37Where did the stories come from? Are they personal,
40:40are they…do you find them in literature? How do you how do
40:44you think about your work as it relates to the present?
40:48SIKANDER: I think as a artist as a individual as a person I think a lot of the information
41:00surrounds us and it’s how much you’re absorbing, so a lot
41:05of it is culled from newspapers, from history books, from other
41:12artists’ work, from literature, everything, I think, culture at large. And it’s also
41:21about how much of it becomes part of your own language. So I think
41:30I’m interested in that process. Like, what does it mean to own something,
41:35the act of ownership, because again the interest in miniature
41:40painting was removed from a culture specificity. It wasn’t because one was from Pakistan
41:47or studying there that you had to do miniature painting.
41:50It was a very objective, non-nostalgic interesting in learning
41:58something, in understanding its context, its history and then getting interested in sort
42:06of a floodgate that happened. There was sort of so much to
42:14process, to juxtapose, as well as see it through the lens of
42:19the colonial history, too. So I think there’s not one place through
42:26which I’m accessing ideas but several places and a lot of it is
42:36create—imagination you know and how can you make something that might communicate
42:43to a larger audience. How do you make work which is compelling,
42:48and how do you define what is compelling, also?
42:50So I think at the end of it it’s also about communication. How do you make work that can
42:57communicate? And then translation, like, what is translation
43:02in that respect. LOWRY: Is the issue of translation, Kiki,
43:07for you, sorry (laughs) the issue, first of all I should say Kiki is one
43:11of the most generous artists in the world. She’s generous with her time, as is every
43:17artist here, but there’s I think in her work a profound generosity
43:21of spirit and something I’m always struck by, so much
43:25of your work feels like it’s giving itself to someone else. To all of us who get to look
43:30at it. Do you think of issues of translation, of how you, either
43:35how you absorb other ideas from cultures or ideas from
43:40literature or how you transfer your work, as it were, from something very private to
43:48something that enters the public sphere?
43:51SMITH: Well … you know, we’re just fluid. Things are just coming in and out and of and
43:58some moments we have like the net’s tighter that we trap
44:03something, it stays in our consciousness and then kind of
44:08flows out of our consciousness again. You know that’s one you know creativity is fluid
44:16and it’s a vehicle you know like it seems to me that art is a
44:22space that keeps like demanding that the depth of our human
44:30gets to have expression and particularly within the bounds of like societies that are often
44:37restrictive and constrictive. You know, that art keeps like
44:41chopping out space and has this ability to move and be fluid
44:49from different cultures. I mean like I would say, I am part or I inherit
44:54the entire history of creativity in the world and that’s my
44:58lineage and I have access through that lineage. And you go to attraction and I think like
45:07love and I think a lot of art is about gift-making, it is about
45:15gift-making. And it is about trying to like synthesize something
45:19outside of yourself that you can then like reflect and look at. But it is also something
45:26that has a capacity for other people to have their own authentic
45:32experience too, and embrace. So you know it is like water
45:40and water and we are essentially I would say creative and technological beings and besides
45:47that you know we’re just things that fluid will go
45:50through. You know so it’s most natural that we make creative
45:55you know have some way of making creative expression.
45:58Certainly within the context of the embassies, you know, we are all extremely fortunate and
46:10also the people working. This was my thing, like, the
46:13people working, it’s most important that America has this,
46:16like, history, problematic history, with visual arts and a suspicion of visual arts and it
46:23is just cause of our history. You know but you know so it hasn’t
46:29been you know so supported in the governmental ways like
46:36in the broad culture like that but it has always been supported by individuals because
46:42and you know this is one of the great contributions we have
46:45here and I forgot what I was saying because I always forget
46:49what I’m saying but anyway that’s nothing (laughs)
46:50LOWRY: I should say, I should say, speaking of lineages, you come from a remarkable lineage
46:55of artists. Your sister Seton, who’s a terrific photographer,
46:59is here with us tonight and you’re both here because
47:02you’re celebrating your father’s hundredth birthday, is that right?
47:05SMITH: Yeah. LOWRY: At the National Gallery, so (applauds)
47:08(audience applause) SMITH: My father is Tony Smith and on Saturday
47:15there’s a talk at the National Gallery about his work, by
47:18some people from the museum, but also the artist Charlie Ray is speaking on his work
47:23which is for us the greatest privilege.
47:25WEEMS: Well you know that’s one of the greatest things about being on a in an environment
47:31like this that this kind of program brings together
47:34that not only do we get a chance to revel in our own sort of
47:41world, you get a chance I get a chance to be with Kiki, who, you know, I adore! And
47:49I want to consume your work! There are pieces that you’ve
47:52made over the years that I literally want to eat. They’re
47:56absolutely that I feel so lucky that I have the opportunity to be with each of you, learn
48:03about each of you, knowing each of you, and to that extent
48:07then that there’s this level of community that exists
48:11amongst us that I think is really sort of extraordinary. And again I think that it’s
48:15these kind of programs that allow us really to come together because
48:19for the most part we’re all very very busy in our own
48:21studios working. SMITH: But we are as artists international
48:26by just fundamentally, you know, outside of any structure, we
48:32exist in a fluid, international— WEEMS: That’s right, that you are home.
48:37That you are home and that you feel the ability to work almost
48:40anywhere. Rosa Luxemburg said, I am home where in the world there are clouds and birds and
48:46human tears. Which I absolutely love. So that I
48:50never feel like there’s any great distance, even though we talk
48:54about these ideas about translation, meaning, who owns something. That you know that there’s
48:59something really wonderful about the ability to sort of to break through those artificial
49:06boundaries of construct. To exist in the world as human,
49:11right? Not man, not woman but as human, as artists, as
49:16people that are deeply interested in the experience of living and making.
49:21SIKANDER: Yeah, and I think at that level we don’t require translation.
49:25(audience applause) SIKANDER: And that really is the interface
49:32of art, that it naturally doesn’t require translation, no
49:38boundaries. And that, you know, it’s harder to define and put down and probably harder
49:48to digest. WEEMS: And yet and yet artists are considered
49:52dangerous. LOWRY: If you’ve been about Shah’s work—
50:00SMITH: Not everywhere— LOWRY: It can be dangerous!
50:07GUO-QIANG: (speaking Mandarin) TRANSLATOR: So back in the days only diplomats
50:20get to jet-set all over the world and especially in China,
50:24if you’re an important diplomat you might have a chance to go to several countries.
50:27So when I mentioned to a Chinese diplomat that I’ve
50:31been to over 30 countries, he was absolutely shocked! ‘How
50:34could you!’ But nowadays, all artists are like diplomats. They go everywhere.
50:40GUO-QIANG: (speaking Mandarin) TRANSLATOR: Well, we should probably talk
50:45about the role of art in diplomacy— GUO-QIANG: (speaking Mandarin)
50:51TRANSLATOR: He made a mistake, but I didn’t (laughs)
50:55(audience laughter) GUO-QIANG: (speaking Mandarin)
50:58TRANSLATOR: So let’s talk about the role of art in diplomacy.
51:04GUO-QIANG: (speaking Mandarin) TRANSLATOR: Back in October, I was fortunate
51:15enough to win the Praemium Imperiale in Japan and
51:20Glenn Lowry actually announced my laureate-ship in MoMA a while back—
51:28GUO-QIANG: (speaking Mandarin) TRANSLATOR: And at the time, AC Macky(?) gave
51:32me two outfits, one for the ceremony in Japan and one
51:40for the ceremony in New York. GUO-QIANG: (speaking Mandarin)
51:47TRANSLATOR: But never would I have thought that Sino-Japanese relations would have reached
51:52the highest tension during that time over the
51:55bickering of the ownership of the Senkaku Islands.
51:59GUO-QIANG: (speaking Mandarin) TRANSLATOR: So over 4,000 activities and events
52:09that were planned by the Chinese and Japanese governments were completely cancelled.
52:14GUO-QIANG: (speaking Mandarin) TRANSLATOR: But I still went to Japan.
52:20GUO-QIANG: (speaking Mandarin) TRANSLATOR: Because it was the first time
52:26that a Chinese-born artist was given this award.
52:30GUO-QIANG: (speaking Mandarin) TRANSLATOR: So after I went, the Japanese
52:36organizers were very pleased. GUO-QIANG: (speaking Mandarin)
52:41TRANSLATOR: And the Chinese ambassador was kind enough to come.
52:45GUO-QIANG: (speaking Mandarin) TRANSLATOR: Even though they cancelled all
52:51these cultural exchange activities, they still came to my
52:56awards ceremony. GUO-QIANG: (speaking Mandarin)
52:59TRANSLATOR: So during the day, the foreign offices of both countries would sort of yell
53:13at each other and say, no, these islands are ours and these
53:16islands are ours, but in the evening they all sit down
53:19together and have a nice dinner. GUO-QIANG: (speaking Mandarin)
53:26TRANSLATOR: So sometimes art can do things that politics cannot.
53:32GUO-QIANG: (speaking Mandarin) (audience applause)
53:38GUO-QIANG: (speaking Mandarin) TRANSLATOR: So the Chinese diplomats were
53:46kind enough to come and were, ‘oh, this is only art’
53:51(audience laughter) GUO-QIANG: (speaking Mandarin)
53:54TRANSLATOR: Because art is always a very emotional exchange and experience between different
54:01human beings. LOWRY: No, I think that’s said so beautiful,
54:08Cai, you know, one of the things that all of us who have the
54:11privilege of working in the arts know is that there’s a community that we live in. That
54:17what Kiki and Carrie were talking about, that we live in
54:20this community and it doesn’t actually matter where we are,
54:24we are always connected to interesting people who will who even if they have different political
54:31positions, share a common belief in the value of art. And I think that’s what the Art
54:36in Embassies program constantly underscores.
54:40Jeff, I wonder, you’ve worked in some of the most interesting places, you’ve tackled
54:46Versailles, for instance, brought it to its heels with your
54:50installation. When you do those kinds of projects—and for
54:55those of you who don’t know, Jeff, probably five years ago, now, I’m guessing it was
54:59more or less that— KOONS: Yes, I think it was around 2008?2008,
55:04Justine? (laughter)
55:05LOWRY: —was invited to do an installation in Versailles, one of the most hallowed spaces
55:13in French. And if anyone knows the French, they’re not
55:16really good about sharing their cultural prowess with the rest of
55:20the world, you know, especially with Americans, who they see as upstarts. But there you were.
55:26What was it like? Did you see yourself in a way
55:29as an ambassador for the United States there? KOONS: I think artists always and people that
55:39are here people that are participating, that’s the main
55:43drive, you want to participate. And so when you’re young, you get together with your
55:49friends, you talk about art, and you to your desire you participate.
55:56And art’s about connections, and the more connections, the more powerful it is.
56:02So when I was younger I would think about what Louis Quatorze, what Louis the 14th,
56:08what fantasies he would have when, to be able to have complete
56:12economic and political freedom to create something. And we all have these freedoms every day to
56:20and art’s really about how much freedom that you give to
56:22yourself. But what maybe his fantasies would be. And so, when I went to Versailles, I was
56:27just very very open, what would seem like a natural piece
56:31to place in different rooms. But Glenn, my experience with art, in a nutshell,
56:40it’s a vehicle that lets you have self-acceptance. You
56:43participate and learning to know yourself, and once you have a sense of yourself you
56:50automatically want to go outward. And you want to have a dialogue
56:53about everything that’s external. And you know it leads
56:58you to have everything in play, it’s about all of these connections. And it’s about
57:04other people and acceptance of others. So automatically you’re
57:09in this dialogue that you want also to have more and more
57:13open to you and that openness comes from acceptance. Accepting everything around you and letting
57:19it be in play, to let it be in dialogue. And
57:22that’s where art finds its interest, its information, its ability to
57:30connect. LOWRY: One of the, this evening is about cultural
57:36exchange and cultural diplomacy and it seems to me
57:39that one of the places where that exchange occurs is often in the form of a biennial.
57:48Those exhibitions that occur every other year, sometimes they’re
57:52every third year, and in the case of some, every fifth
57:54year but they bring together artists from around the world often, for a moment, you
58:02know, in a place that sometimes might not be exposed to recent
58:07work by a number of people and I’m interested in how
58:11those of us who are consumers at biennials find them fascinating because they’re, I
58:16don’t want to call them one-stop shopping, but they provide a
58:19unique moment to take a pulse. And I wonder what it’s like from the point
58:23of view of an artist, to be part of a biennial. I think, Shahzia,
58:28you’re working for the Sharjah Biennial. This is a one of the newer biennials, it takes
58:33place in Sharjah in the Gulf, in March if I am correct. What’s
58:39that like, and what kind of work are you doing for that? And
58:42how do you feel about being you meet other artists is it does it engage you in a different
58:48in a way that’s different than when you’re just doing a
58:50show in New York or in Los Angeles? SIKANDER: Absolutely. I think especially the
58:56Sharjah Biennial because, you know, being in New York, you
59:01are pretty much separate from that region. Versus sort of living nearby or close by.
59:15So that’s one aspect. The other is that I have been to UAE several
59:23times but not necessarily to engage with the context of
59:29Sharjah and the foundation itself. So this time I really was much more open to understanding
59:37its history in the region and its relationship to Pakistan
59:40and its relationship to other Asian countries because there’s
59:43lots of migrant workers, lots of people, ex-pats that also bring to life that area.
59:52So all of those things are swimming in one’s head, which is not necessarily going to happen
59:58if you’re working in the studio and making your next
60:01body of work, or putting a show up. So definitely you think
60:06you have to shift gears and think differently. So I’m doing a variety of projects, since
60:14my primary practice is drawing there’s a lot of new drawings
60:19after visiting and exploring Sharjah and looking through lots of
60:23imagery and its history. Few years back, you know, few decades ago very different, so it’s…
60:32and then I’m doing like a multi-channel video animation
60:36work, I’m working with another musician for the sound and
60:41also working on a film project which will be shot there in two weeks, on site. So there’s
60:47a lot of relationship to the location, engaging with
60:51the people there, engaging much more with the fabric of the
60:55host country or the host society in that respect. It is about acceptance. It’s also about
61:03you know finding ways to engage through a different tempo,
61:07rhythm, and then also learning in the process more and how to create that boundary that’s
61:15going to create something meaningful between that particular
61:21engagement as well as the larger platform which
61:24is well-visited as we know by globally, through everybody. So I think not respect—biennials
61:30as platforms are very critical because they do the space
61:36at least for contemporary art where we see a variety of
61:39things which we don’t necessarily are privy to, being in just in the US or New York.
61:48WEEMS: I think it’s also unique, the thing that’s important and I think that this issue
61:52underscores what you were just saying the you know the you
61:57know you have to, to do what we do you have to love it. Like
62:02you really have to like I am a slave to my work. It tells me what to do, it gets me up
62:10in the morning, and it tells me when I am going to go to bed at
62:13night. You know, I mean, it rules my life and there are parts of
62:16it that I find absolutely maddening and there are parts of it that absolutely save me. You
62:22know, art has saved my life on more than one occasion.
62:27And how we participate in the world I think and this thing called diplomacy is a very
62:34complex thing. It’s not a static thing and that it exists on many
62:38many many many different levels. You know, from this way
62:42in which Kiki was talking about, the way in which things are simply flowing, information,
62:48ideas, emotion, concept, being, that these things are flowing
62:53back and forth through many different channels. So on the one hand there’s that this emotional
63:02thing, this thing that we are attempting to live through,
63:04that we are attempting to communicate through. Volumes of stored information, sensibility,
63:12concept, being, is one thing—the way in which we
63:16work as artists. So you know that you can be that I can be in
63:20Mexico or I can be in South Africa and the artist and the people assume that the work
63:27was made there. That it is transcended where it was made.
63:32That it’s now simply about what the material is and what the
63:36material is trying to get at. That it becomes really much more important.
63:41So that there’s that aspect of diplomacy, that you are becoming a part of a larger world,
63:47that you’re breaking down barriers and boundaries. Which
63:51is really what we’re talking about, right? How do we how
63:55do we disrupt the boundaries, the bridges that separate us from one another? And how
64:02do we do that in an elegant and challenging way? In a way that
64:07is respectful of the difference between the group of us?
64:13You know, so that on the one hand I have the extraordinary privilege to work with FAPE
64:20on the one hand, with Art in Embassies here, but there’s
64:24nothing like being in Rome and making a body of work and
64:29having a group of Romans come to me and tell me that this is the first time that they’ve
64:34understood their city in this way, and that they’re
64:37shocked and surprised. It’s something else that happens now,
64:41some other kind of information, some other kind of dialogue is now possible between me
64:47and that group of people because something else has
64:51happened, you know, that something else is broken, that
64:53something else has been built up, actually. And that I think is exciting.
64:57So the diplomacy exists in many many ways and that each in our own way I think direct
65:04it. Control it. Manifest it. Speak it. Live it.
65:08SMITH: That’s something nice too about the Art in Embassies is that the diversity of
65:16voices or of practices or of some sort of manifestations
65:20of things. They don’t have to go together and I think that’s
65:23one of like our great American heritages of living in this country now as artists and
65:31in particular for us as women artists, our generation, that we have
65:36had such a fortunate that we’ve taken such a fortunate
65:40position that we get to do our work. But that it’s really large, the space that art can
65:48occupy. And that it’s not only to make cultural
65:52understanding. You know, it’s also to stand in that things are
65:56incomprehensible, enigmatic, not able to be quantified or understood, they’re idiosyncratic,
66:03and they’re out—they’re outside and, you know, and
66:07that it’s really important to have models of incoherence and
66:12models of difference and you know not make this sort of mushy, happy happy, you know
66:18everybody in the world’s happy with each other culturally.
66:22And but but it allows art allows the space for that. You
66:26know, when many places in international diplomacy or whatever are intolerant of the not-knowing
66:36space. And that’s a great thing that art affords and is a model for the world, I think.
66:45KOONS: Kiki, if I could just say something, you know when we speak about culture too,
66:52you know, culture can be such a large kind of word,
66:56but in a way it’s just like a personality. And it’s a personality of
67:00a group of people. And art is an experience that really just happens in a singular viewer
67:09and that brings us back to that you know nations are made
67:12up of individuals and we all contribute to this kind of being
67:17of a whole. And then also interacting with each other. That’s really about individuals
67:24relating to each other and communicating and having a dialogue,
67:28one-on-one. LOWRY: Speaking of a dialogue, this is supposed
67:32to be about exchange and I think we should take a few
67:34minutes to see if there are any questions from those of you in the audience! For any
67:40one of these wonderful artists who are sharing the evening
67:44with us. So don’t be shy! If you have a question—do we
67:52have a process for questions or do I just…people have been writing them down?
67:57(voices offstage) LOWRY: You know what, you know what? I like
68:02taking it as it flies. So if you have a question, raise your
68:08hand and I’ll call on you and just speak loudly.
68:11SMITH: I’ll say something really—oh, no, you’ve got it—no I just want to say something
68:17really quick, because we’re all artists but like Cai-san
68:22is my curator, he has curated me in two international exhibitions, of my own museum shows in his
68:29museums because you know he as all artists and all human
68:34beings can have many facets to you know we get to be citizens as artists, we get to be
68:40artists, we get to do whatever else we’re doing. But he’s
68:43someone in a unique position that has made his own museums,
68:47has taken his own museums, has occupied his own museums, so he is a very important cultural
68:54model I think of the complexity of what an artist
69:00can be today. Anyway, sorry. LOWRY: No, that was great, Kiki!
69:04SMITH: But he’s great! LOWRY: He is great! In the back there was
69:08a question… I think, yes? (audience member asks a question, unintelligible)
69:25LOWRY: Did everyone hear, did everyone hear that question?
69:29AUDIENCE: No … LOWRY: She asked if any of these artists but
69:32I think she was directing it perhaps at Jeff in particular,
69:37when they create a work that might go to an embassy or abroad, are they trying to send
69:44a specific message?
69:47(audience member continues question) LOWRY: Carrie?
69:58WEEMS: Well that’s not my case I mean I think I am I just make work. I make work that
70:10I’m really deeply interested in that really me and then I think
70:16it’s been the thing that’s been interesting is and then there’s
70:22a real consideration about what will be the best work for a certain embassy so that out
70:29of the many many many many pieces that I’ve produced
70:32over the years maybe only a few of them really speak in I
70:38think in a certain way that allows that work to go maybe to Madagascar or Liberia or the
70:48US mission in New York. So no I haven’t I’ve never made
70:54anything with the mission in mind, I haven’t had that
70:56experience but maybe others here have. GUO-QIANG: (speaking Mandarin)
71:08TRANSLATOR: So my work was probably trying to do something like you had mentioned. When
71:18Art in Embassies invited me to create a piece for
71:20the embassy in Beijing, I was very excited. GUO-QIANG: (speaking Mandarin)
71:31TRANSLATOR: So to be honest with you, no Chinese government agency has ever commissioned me
71:38to create a work for their government buildings
71:40so yeah Americans were the first to ask. (laughter)
71:45GUO-QIANG: (speaking Mandarin) TRANSLATOR: So I used gunpowder to depict
71:51an eagle and a pine tree branch. GUO-QIANG: (speaking Mandarin)
71:56TRANSLATOR: So these two things from the two different countries are creating a relationship
72:03with each other.
72:05GUO-QIANG: (speaking Mandarin) TRANSLATOR: But when artists work in the world,
72:18in different countries, like everyone here has
72:20mentioned, everyone has their little tricks. It’s like being a diplomat, everyone have
72:24their own set of skills.
72:34GUO-QIANG: (speaking Mandarin) TRANSLATOR: So last December when I was working
72:39in Doha, in Qatar, because it’s in the Arab world
72:43and I felt mystified by it, I was very worried GUO-QIANG: (speaking Mandarin)
72:49TRANSLATOR: So I brought my team and stayed there for 50 days.
72:55GUO-QIANG: (speaking Mandarin) TRANSLATOR: And I tried to work with volunteers
72:59from local communities GUO-QIANG: (speaking Mandarin)
73:05TRANSLATOR: And when I tried to write fragile in Arabic, the museum staff held my hand and
73:12taught me how to write it
73:14GUO-QIANG: (speaking Mandarin) TRANSLATOR: And because I’ve invested so much of my own
73:25energy there, when I wanted to put gunpowder on the Abaya robes that local women
73:31wear, the museum was very tolerant. GUO-QIANG: (speaking Mandarin)
73:39TRANSLATOR: (laughs) Because the museum knows that I’m very serious about what I do.
73:44GUO-QIANG: (speaking Mandarin) TRANSLATOR: And they know that I’m trying
73:49to create a dialogue with their culture. GUO-QIANG: (speaking Mandarin)
74:02TRANSLATOR: And then I made a video piece documenting how Arabian horses are raised
74:11in their specialized breeding and training centers,
74:13that these horses be artificially inseminated and then they
74:18would go for a very strict fitness and beauty regimen every day where they swim laps in
74:23a swimming pool and then run on a treadmill. And then
74:28you get showered, shampooed, massaged, beautified with all
74:31different ointments— LOWRY: It’s good to be a horse in some places!
74:41(audience laughter) GUO-QIANG: (speaking Mandarin)
74:48TRANSLATOR: And when I made another installation called Flying Together with a flock of falcons
74:55lifting a camel, the museum staff were very supportive
74:59and helped finish the work. GUO-QIANG: (speaking Mandarin)
75:06TRANSLATOR: So if you start by respecting these cultural differences, earnestly try
75:16to initiate a dialogue with different people, then people will learn
75:20to accept you. GUO-QIANG: (speaking Mandarin)
75:25TRANSLATOR: And people learn to respect you and trust you and give you creative freedom.
75:32GUO-QIANG: (speaking Mandarin) TRANSLATOR: And I was hoping that my art practice would influence
75:44the young artists from the region so they can see how to transform their cultural
75:50icons into contemporary works of art. GUO-QIANG: (speaking Mandarin)
75:56TRANSLATOR: They also influence me deeply and allow me to contemplate from a new angle
76:06the relationship between the Arab world and the
76:09rest of the world. LOWRY: I think actually on that note of tolerance
76:13and I do think one of the great things that art does is
76:17build bridges and create conditions that allow for tolerance, generosity, love requited or
76:25otherwise, to take place. We should recognize, celebrate
76:30and thank Kiki Smith, Carrie Mae Weems, Jeff Koons, Shazia
76:35Sikander and Cai Guo-Qiang, five remarkable artists who will be honored tomorrow, for
76:39sharing this evening with us.
76:47(applause) VOICEOVER: Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome
77:02Mister Elliot Gerson, Executive Vice President of
77:05Policy and Public Programs for the Aspen Institute. GERSON: Well this, this I think is a doubly
77:16perilous assignment, first of all to end that incredible, brilliant
77:20exchange and also to separate all of you from what will be a wonderful reception. But someone
77:26had to have this assignment. So I will be brief.
77:29But on behalf of the Aspen Institute, the Art in Embassies
77:33program at the State Department, the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and
77:38the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade
77:40Center, I’d like to say just a few words, largely of thanks
77:45to all of you for joining us here tonight to celebrate the 50th anniversary of this
77:49remarkable program. We know that you couldn’t help but enjoy
77:55Marc Bamuthi Joseph’s amazing, exhilarating performance
78:00that we saw, and I think all of us will long remember that incredibly insightful dialogue
78:08that we all listened to. I mean, just just you know, the
78:13thrill to have that kind of exuberance of talent, together at
78:19one time in one place and be able to eavesdrop on it, I think was very very special.
78:24(audience applause) GERSON: But we are here to celebrate a wonderful
78:33anniversary, the fiftieth anniversary of this fabulous
78:37program and I’ve had a chance to see its magic in other cities around the world. In
78:44that regard, I’d like to particularly thank Beth Dozoretz, who it’s
78:48been my pleasure to know and work with for gosh probably
78:51about 15 years, Beth, and more recently, Virginia Shore. We were just in Tokyo recently for
78:59an Aspen Institute sponsored forum on cultural diplomacy.
79:05And they’ve just done an extraordinary job in running
79:08this program, absolutely brilliantly during a time of obvious challenge for any kind of
79:14cultural fundraising. But also deserve special thanks
79:19and Virginia mentioned this for the insight they had to
79:24include contemporary art from the host countries, in addition to American artists to foster
79:30the kind of cross-cultural dialogue and exchange that
79:33we just got a glimpse. And it’s actually that kind of vision that
79:43enabled Art in Embassies to play such a significant role in the
79:49recent forum that we had in Japan under the theme of the art of peace building and reconciliation.
79:56And we did have Virginia there, we also were able
79:59to entertain our guests from all around the world in our
80:04ambassador’s residence which was complemented so wonderfully by works from this great
80:10organization. And so it was really special and I’m sure for any of you who’ve had
80:15opportunities to see the actual effect of the work in other embassies
80:19and missions around the world, it’s really remarkable.
80:24We had that event in Tokyo after having it in several other places in previous years
80:28including Spain and France, in Oman, and I’m glad to say I think
80:34next year will actually bring the magic of this kind of cultural
80:38diplomacy event to Congo and if there’s a place in the world that needs the magic
80:44and power and peace of art, it’s certainly Congo.
80:50The Aspen Institute, and many of you may not realize this, but when we were founded in
80:541950, art was very much at our core, art and music and literature.
81:02And in the decades since we’ve evolved increasingly at least in outside perception as an institute
81:07focused on public policy and foreign policy, domestic
81:12international policy but and it seems like a small world but about seven years ago largely
81:19under the inspiration of the late Sydney Harman, one
81:22of our trustees, we brought art back really to center stage at
81:29the Institute. And not art in terms of performance or display, Sydney used to say that art is
81:36not, it’s not decoration, it’s not entertainment, it’s
81:40fundamental to everything we do and who we are.
81:43So in our programs in the arts, what we do is not just show art or give artists a stage
81:52or an opportunity to read or perform. We actually engage artists
81:56in everything we do. Whether it’s discussing refugee
82:00issues or whether it’s discussing education in American public schools, because we believe
82:05the perspective of artists is so fundamental and
82:08so important. So that is what we do. It’s now my privilege
82:12to oversee a suite of arts programs, including one run by
82:16Damian Puono(?) who’s here tonight that deals with cultural diplomacy but also a spectacular
82:22one run by the dancer Damian Woetzel and we’re about
82:25to launch one run by the wonderful playwright Anna
82:29Devere Smith. So art is very much a part of what we are all about now.
82:35Finally, and I did promise you you would be able to get to this reception, I’d like
82:39to recognize a few people who made all of this possible, other
82:42than those of course I’ve already mentioned. Damian
82:45Puono(?) but also Maria Elena Amatangelo and Agnes Pour(?) for their contribution to the
82:51planning at this event. Welmoed Laanstra, for Arts in
82:55Embassies who helped coordinate the event. And of course,
82:59the Woodrow Wilson International Center itself especially Jane who mentioned that we jealously
83:04share her with the Wilson Center, she’s also a
83:06trustee of the Institute. Sharon McCarter, Marie-Stella Gatzoulis,
83:10for facilitating logistical and outreach efforts. And of course the Ronald Reagan Building and
83:15International Trade Center for hosting us. So now, it is my pleasure to ask you please
83:20join us at our reception, thank you very much for being here.
83:22(applause) (music plays over credits)