Thomas Hirschhorn, Aubervilliers, 3-1-2007

About “Concretion Re”
I am Non-resigned and Non-reconciled. Today, those two conditions are essential to me in order to do my work as an artist. As such, my work consists in giving Form, in asserting that Form and in defending that Form against all and against everything.

What does giving Form mean? To give Form means making something that could only come from me, something that I am the only one to see, it means making what I alone am capable of making when I allow myself to make. Giving Form implies only working with myself - that is where the act of giving lies, that is how Form is involved. That is  the process of working – that’s My work!

What does it mean, to assert the Form? To assert the Form, means to eagerly step aside from the Form, in a committed yet spontaneous way, without self-restraint, without thinking or considering the consequences of that gesture. That means heaving-up the shape, holding it up-high, showing proudly that Form. To assert the Form also means refusing to see oneself working. It is just like “Stalker” did: throwing one’s challenge far ahead of oneself, in order to commit to then catch-up with it. Asserting the Form is an emancipative act, without agenda or safety net.  In order to assert the Form, I must be brave and accept to be ridiculous and silly.

And what does defending the Form mean? Defending the Form means: believing in the Form, believing in what has crystallized as a Form, believing in what has become a Form, and that as such can be challenged, criticized, rejected. Defending the shape means believing more than anything in the force that makes something a Form! Defending the Form also implies agreeing with everything that relates to that Form. The defense of the Form is the deeply warlike act that makes one an artist. It is the very condition to establishing oneself as an Actor, as an Artist. Even if one is not victorious in that fight, the defense of the Form never is a defeat. The fight for defending the Form is never a lost fight, never.

I am Non-reconciled and Non-resigned, for I refuse to be trapped by information. That information trap cannot interfere with Art. The trap of information wants me to give-in to the facts. Facts – only Facts! Of course! It is, on the contrary, about acting beyond facts; not with or against them, but beyond them in order to build a new Truth, using the Form. Through its ambitions, that Form reaches the universe and its clearness goes beyond history. As an artist my challenge is as follows: How can I, here and now, take a Position, give it Form and still have that Position be confronted to esthetic, political, social and cultural Particularisms? How can I use the Form to build the Truth? Moreover a Truth that isn’t validated as so through debate, discussion, communication or even analysis; but one that compels recognition through its capacity to enlighten the Form itself. To enlighten me, a Form has to be able to involve me, it must generate the condition that brings me in contact with it; the condition that makes me touch it, that makes me start a dialogue or a confrontation with the Form. The Form that enlightens me without neutralizing me leaves space for me not to understand.

As an artist, I want to work on giving forms that are made with the Will of being Precise and Excessive. I aim precision in my work; yet I want to work in excess, overwork with intensity and turmoil. For that is the only way for me to achieve working in chaos, in order to clarify it and confront the abysmal miracle of the unspeakable. I want to work in chaos, which means understanding Art as a mean to confront Reality, a way to know the world and a tool to live in my own time. And chaos is everywhere. Therefore, I do not want to go in and out of chaos, but rather enter it in order to fight it and structure it. I want to work in chaos for it is the only possible way to resist. It constitutes a Resistance to Facts, to Information, to Opinion. Art itself is a mean of Resistance, and it does resist because it is Art. That is what is essential. But that is also what is difficult for an Artist: to keep believing in Art’s constitutive resistance and not to turn to architecture, design, graphics or fashion.

I want to try and produce a work that does not avoid what is negative. I want to produce a work that is open to what isn’t positive. I want to work on something that isn’t negative, but that confronts what isn’t given, what cannot be touched, what isn’t positive. Through my work, I want to touch what can’t be touched. I want to work on the edge of the untouchable. I mostly want to be able to give Form to the urging and irresistible requirement for Each wound to be my wound! Each death is my death. Each disparity is my disparity. Each injustice is my injustice. Each sorrow is my sorrow.  

All attempts of explanation and information must be relentlessly countered: Who is the victim? Who is the oppressor? I am the oppressor and I am the victim, and no one else is. I am the only one responsible. And I am responsible for all of it. I want to give Form to the assertion that I am responsible for each and every pain inflicted, wherever. That is the attempt I made with the exhibition “Concretion” at the Creux de l’Enfer in 2006 and I want to insist, to repeat myself with my exhibition “Concretion Re” at the Chantal Crousel Gallery in 2007. Insisting seems inevitable to me; Repeat, Revise, Rethink, Remake. I have read the texts “Philosophy as Creative Repetition” by Alain Badiou, and “Event and Repetition”∗ by Mehdi Belhaj Kacem.


* In Failles, n°2, printemps 2006, sous la direction d’Alexandre et Daniel Costanzo