Lawrence Weiner Interview: The Means to Answer Questions

An interview with the legendary conceptual artist Lawrence Weiner about the connection between cruelty, hierarchy and rationality. The artist must ask questions past ordinary logic, he says.

In this interview Weiner philosophises on how the artist can present things people might not have noticed. Art is not meant to answer questions, but rather to ask them. Art is about things you don't know. Art is a means to answer questions. The artist must go beyond logic and risk madness, he explains: "You have to re-adapt your own logic just to be able to communicate with somebody else."

The artist must communicate a kind of "what if?" past the point of understandable logic, Weiner says: "Does each rock have a place in the sun?" Art is not telling, but showing. If you take away hierarchy there will be no racism. Cruelty is only possible because people find ways to rationalise it: "I wish people would stop being so cruel to each other." Because of this Weiner wants to "fuck peoples lives up" in the kindest way possible.

American artist Lawrence Weiner (b.1942) is regarded as a founding figure of Postminimalism's Conceptual arm in the 1960s. His work often takes the form of typographic texts. He lives and works in New York.

Lawrence Weiner was interviewed by Jesper Bundgaard

Photography and editing by Per Henriksen

Produced by Christian Lund

Copyright: Louisiana Channel, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, 2014

Supported by Nordea-fonden