too many people in one space makes me uneasy (exhibition openings are “fun”) I love visiting Berlin and other big cities for a limited time - and then go home where it’s quiet and lonely. The only thing I miss from bigger cities is the feeling of community you can have with other artists, hang out and get inspired, exchange ideas etc. I think creative people can often benefit from those relations - it’s sort of and symbiotic relationship. BBB: If you were to tell the readers to watch one documentary, read one book and research one artist, what
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would they be? JR: Oh. Choosing just one artist is going to be tough there are so many I admire! I’ll go by my latest fascination then and that is the work of Belgian sculptural artist Berlinde de Bruyckere - I love her work and what it does to you as a viewer. As for books I really like things that spark my imagination. A great (semi)fictional work I read recently was The Dream Faculty by Sara Stridsberg. It’s a novel that mixes documentary material with free fiction, the narrative revolving around Valeri Solanas - the woman who
shot Andy Warhol and wrote the ultra-feminist manifesto SCUM. If you like complicated timelines and jumps in the narrative structure, feverish prose, historical facts on (pop) culture in America mixed with fictional conversations with a dead person.... this ones for you! I’m going to go with an oldie as far as documentary - if you never watched the South Bank Show’s interview with Francis Bacon from 1980-something you should. Even if you are not familiar with his work or maybe not too fond of it, this documentary is equally hilarious, entertaining and instructive.