AB |
Licia, how would you respond if Markus requested a guided tour at the castle for the duration of one year? Every day for one year!
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LA |
Showing him around the castle every day for an entire year?! Forget it, no way! We can’t do this tour for more than a month. If Markus wants to do the tour for a year it means that we need a written request: Then we would decide, yes, at a certain day we can do the tour, and at another day we just can’t... Does this make sense? No, not every day, because in that case it becomes bothersome.
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AB |
But the guided tour could be the same every day and would be less troublesome to do?
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LA |
Always the same tour? Well, then [...] there is perhaps also an upside where I get to learn to speak English. First English and then even some Japanese... Colette, let me ask you a question: How would you feel if Markus came here every day to ask for a guided tour for an entire year?
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CP |
In response to that we could simply get sick for three months...
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LA |
Yes, I see. Well, we should also must take advantage of the situation: One month you do the tour every day, the other month I take over. That way we're learning more about the history of the castle... That makes me wonder how much Markus has learnt about the castle's history. Because at the end of this project I would like to do an exam with him on what he got out of all these tours! Me, the professor, and yes, he is the student.
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AB |
How did you experience Markus' daily reappearance and how did things evolve over time?
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LA |
On the first day I didn't think much. On the second day all seemed okay to me. Also on the third day I felt okay and told myself, well, obviously he is very interested in this place and he wants to learn more about the castle. One, two, three, four days, went by like this. But after five, or six days and into the second week I had to confront Markus when he once again requested yet another guided tour. I looked at him and simply said: ‘Oi puru!’ It is Sardinian and means ‘today, once more’.
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AB |
What did you think about the salt piles?
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LA |
It looked somewhat Japanese to me... I said to myself: "but will it also appear every day?" At first I was careless not to notice the thing on the ground in front of the castle's gate. Then I saw it and asked him if he was putting out the salt and palm leaf. Since then I tried to understand why he is doing it every day... Maybe there is a disconnect in the communication or something, but I don't get what his objective is. Because the information Markus acquires here every day [through the guided tours] seems to be erased at the end of each day. The next day he starts over and resumes the process. The information that he acquired is put aside, and the day after the things are back to default, maybe like a little brush sweeping things blank. I wonder if Markus is currently learning how to remember things again... Maybe I am wrong here, however, I realize that this setup makes for novel situations every day. In any case among other things, I must say that we also became very good friends. On some mornings when Markus was late to shop up we [the staff at the castle] asked ourselves: "Where is he today, why has Markus not come yet?!" We started to expect him to show up...
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AB |
What did you know about Markus' work before the project?
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LA |
And I knew nothing. When he came here first to request a tour, I knew nothing...
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AB |
But you have associated him with the group of guest artists in town?
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LA |
Yes indeed. Because I was at the public presentation at the beginning of Le Ville Matte. I knew that he was part of the group, but did not know about his work. The first guided tours were provided by Antonello and Colette who both speak a little English (while me and Michela don't speak any English. Then Antonello [our media technician at the castle] searched the Internet. and showed us some of Markus art projects. One morning Antonello showed some of that online material to Markus who just replied: "These things are so old..." Since then I am teasing Markus with the remark that there are unfortunately no public telephones left in Italy...
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AB |
Soon there will be the final exhibition where the reasoning behind this project will be further explained.
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FT |
I’m also very curious about this. I hope that in the end we will find out what the objective was behind this project. I wonder if it can be fully explained or whether we always will be left with open questionsc I wonder what the ultimate goal is of this. Who knows what his original idea was and how it affected us all? I am looking forward to learning more about the project's motivation.
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AB |
Markus mentioned to me that he liked the tour you gave him yesterday when you got quiet inventive.
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LA |
Markus was eagerly searching a portrait of Signor Siviller, the founder of this castle. There are no paintings on the walls. So when Markus pointed to the only iconographic wall relief of a saint and asked if that's the portrait of Signor Siviller, I said "yes, why not." No one ever thought that it might be Siviller's portrait but then again, we have no other depiction of him to prove otherwise...
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AB |
One important aspect in this project is that all participants – like yourself – are getting involuntarily engaged. You pulled off a substantial portion of creativity in the process, in the sense that you even started to invent stories in the guided tours.
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LA |
Oh yes, I believe so! It is about the whole process. In fact, many of us, I think, can’t comprehend much of the end results presented in contemporary art. What we see, for most of us is weird stuff and we ask ourselves: "what does this mean, what is it?" Contrary in this project, I believe, that we had the honor to be directly involved in many ways. I heard previously about this art initiative [Le Ville Matte] that would involve citizens. It said that people could become an active part of the projects but I kept asking myself in what manner this could be done. Now I start to experience little by little what this could mean...
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AB |
Each artist in their own, respective ways has tried to get inside community.
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LA |
Also it makes you better understand what the meaning of contemporary art can be. Most of us look at things in a different way. There is art you see and you admire. By seeing one of your interpretations – whether like it or not – I can recognize that contemporary art is after something different that first I did not understand. I am realizing little by little that it is about how it involves you. At least this project here is doing work that involves all of us in ways where everyone feels as an active part of something bigger. Somehow this project had a deep impact on all of us.
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AB |
Very well put, Licia!
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LA |
Another thing we noted during Markus’ project is that it rained recently here in Sardinia like in Milan or Dublin where I went last year to visit my son. So the rain swept the salt piles away but we observed that Markus kept replacing and rebuilding it. It’s like every day another fresh knowledge, some new piece of information, everything refreshed all over again. So for some reason we told the cleaning lady not to touch the salt, the salt from Markus.
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