Y SIN EMBARGO magazine

La entrevista a Lucky Clov para Y SIN EMBARGO magazine #15, “inter-visto issue”:

1) Do you… play? What values has or do you give to the ludicrous in your life?

Perhaps appropriately, who is the protagonist who plays and what is his urgency? In a hunger to form an approximation of meaning, to stretch the act into significance, to seek one who reciprocates?
In a society where childhood play is regarded as a developmental aid leading to some more advanced cognitive state where play is then cast aside, it becomes the urge to create, as freedom from obligation, in suspension between the schedule of work. In an industrial age this was made manifest in its opposition to the scheduled time of productive operations, of Foucault’s spaces of enclosure. This then doubles back into itself- that is, in the reconciliation of Homo Ludens (man the player) and Homom Sapiens (man who knows that he knows). Where we come to the point of what he knows is where the absurd and ludicrous play a fruitful allegorical metaphor, for we are all Pirandellos at heart, and the ludicrous has shown itself to be a respite of sorts; specifically from the spirit of nihilism which we have inherited from twentieth century thought…. when a bloated vocabulary is not enough.
Interestingly, the division of labour and leisure in industrial societies with a market economy is mutating into a post-industrial playpen where the private act of leisure time is increasingly dominant. If we are still playing to perform meaning, intended for the performance of one’s self and an other, is it only the parameters that have widened or one more instance of commodification?

2) Have you ever used your art to get sentimental or sexual advantages from someone? Tell us what and how it was? If positive, would you do it again??// ¿Habéis utilizado alguna vez vuestro arte para beneficiaros sentimental o sexualmente de alguien? ¿El qué y cómo fue? En caso positivo, ¿lo volveríais a hacer? ?

I think it’s probably more useful to regard the question as how it might reflect the cultural ideology of our age, heavily weighing upon sex, violence, ironical savants and what have you, in a melting pot of high and low culture. In the art world, the emphasis on impact and emotion as a reaction to Conceptualism and related theoretical movements begs a comparison with the advent of Romanticism and its commonly viewed dichotomy, the Enlightenment. Cartesian dualisms aside, we must remember that Romanticism evolved in the wake of Germanic industrialization, and with its concomitant emphasis on emotion, sentiment and nationalist tradition might not be so very far from the shock and awe tactics of postmodern culture, which as Lyotard surmised, was itself possibly pre-modern or Romantic. But whereas Romanticism envisioned an escape from the horrors of industrialism, Postmodernism might be seen as wholly escapist, demoting the grand narratives of modernism with an ironic sweep and relativising new ‘grander’ narratives such as women’s liberation and post-colonial theory, so that they become mere ‘sentiment.’ Have I answered the question positively, sentimentally or otherwise…

3) ?3) Do you believe in (or do you subscribe to) an eschatology of transcendence? ?// Crees en (o adhieres a) una escatología de la trascendencia??

Transcendence has more often than not been transcribed to the realm of the metaphysical, and so, insignificant to the ‘rational’ mind. To reason an ‘absence’ is then as non-sensical an endeavour as to reason a presence, whatever form or idea such a dichotomy might suppose. And so the rational mind takes refuge in ‘calculation’- what cannot be measured, transcribed, demonstrated, or related to a system of equivalence is not worthy of investment/ investigation. Its contemplation is discrete, terrorist and terrifying. And necessarily this value then falls outside the ‘chain of command’ market economy.
But yet we have the will to continue, or we are willed to continue, like Sisyphus, pushing boulders up mountains; or in the ludicrous spirit of the times, molehills, each sequential fall mimicking the final fall, and bringing to light the futility of the task
After all, one boulder might fall in a less linear and sequential manner, jolting us into a moment of awareness, and reconciling our selves to the notion of finality. Not the ultimate death, for that is a mere cleansing of our awareness of death, but the many small cries of death that result in our temporal unfolding, for it is not neutral time that we mourn, but our progression in temporal awareness.
The external world does not reciprocate our aesthetic idlings, our poeticizing- to welcome the dawn and yet simultaneously not be welcomed by it; a metaphor for out temporal condition. And yet…. if we postulate that there is a transcendent function, without recourse to transcendence, surely it is this function that is of import.

4) ?4) What is the one thing that you never, ever admitted about yourself??//Qué es lo que nunca, nunca has admitido acerca de tí mismo?
As a child, harbouring secret desires of becoming a paleontologist!

5) ??5) Until what extent the repetitive (in the arts) is “image and likeness” of the various cycles of nature? When is it hypnotic, “tribal” or simply stupefying??//¿En qué medida lo repetitivo (en las artes) es “”imagen y semejanza” de los diversos ciclos de la naturaleza? ¿Cuándo es hipnótico, “tribal” o, simplemente, embrutecedor?

Not only do we exist in a temporal continuum, but we broadly subscribe to a narrative continuum, whether subjective, historical, literary or artistic, effectively narrativising time. One might paraphrase it as the thinking animal’s effective strategy subject to its cyclical environment; as a way of making meaning in a system of communication, learned through the repetition of shared codes. As a religious term ‘image and likeness’ evidently finds root in Platonist thought, with its metaphysical connotations of duration implying a meditative aspect, and therefore perhaps most attainable in the trance associated with tribal ritual. I have yet to try it.

6) 6) In responding to questions posed by fourteen anonymous people, and in turn posing one to them, what evidence do you anticipate–or are willing to accept–that this effort?has any concrete significance, beyond existing as a cyber-fiction, a delusion, and/or an ephemeral, “virtual” reality? ?// En respuesta a las preguntas formuladas por catorce personas anónimas, y, a su vez, formulando una a ellos, ¿qué pruebas anticipas – o están dispuestos a aceptar – que este esfuerzo?tiene algún significado concreto, más allá de las actuales como un ciber-ficción, un engaño, y / o una efímera, realidad “virtual”??
As all delusions are categorically ludicrous, but effective in fictive play, which is by nature ephemeral, it is virtually…great!

7) ?7) How do you relate your creative activity?to your desire of being socially engaged?(in the critique of what exists and the creation of what could be)? ?// ¿De qué manera se relaciona tu actividad creativa?a tu deseo de estar socialmente comprometido?(en la crítica de lo que existe y en la creación de lo que podría ser?

Socialisation seems to be an intrinsic rather than extrinsic motivation, and our creative output effectively a search for some lost ‘other’ who might reciprocate in thought or deed. This sense of absence is instigated in our condition as temporal beings who can never categorically inhabit a moment of ‘presence,’ but exist in a symbiosis of past and projected future. The future is another place- an elsewhere- where we plan to be, and this temporal dimension is fundamental to our ‘will to be,’ in what is and could be. To recycle Sisyphus after Camus- if he planned, or indeed was willed, to push the boulder to the summit of the mountain- was this plan enough to guarantee a condition of happiness? And might we take this as a metaphor of creative activity?

8) Which are the five books that should be mandatory in any occidental High school??//¿Cuáles son los cinco libros que deberían ser obligatorios en cualquier?colegio secundario de occidente?

‘How to Overcome Nihilism’ in ‘Playing Effectively’ as a ‘Ludicrous Luddite’ while pondering ‘Great Metaphysical/ Social/ Politicial Questions’ (answer book separate) in ‘The Global Age and its Discontents.’ I would hesitate to impose Deleuze and friends upon a high school curriculum, but otherwise Chomsky has written lucidly and therefore perhaps more appropriate to that age group!

9) ??9) The “repetition” determines the norm by which the genes?assure themselves the continuity of their stirps… while?the difference signs the rupture of the repetitive?tendency… and then, the mutation does erupt.?Could it be thought that the human being´s actual state?is showing a cultural mutation or are we succumbing in a?neurosis where we can get collapsed??//La repeticion fija la normativa por la que los genes se siente seguros de continuar la estirpe…. mientras que la diferencia señala la ruptura de la tendencia repetitiva… y surge la mutación… ?Se podría pensar que el estado actual del mundo humano señala una mutación cultural o estamos sucumbiendo a una neurosis donde podemos quedarnos colapsados?

If conformity is integral to the sharing of signs; effectively communication, then perhaps it is time to welcome a rhizomatic mutant that might lead us out of postmodern cultural neurosis and instigate a new direction. The mutant motivates others to mobilize, or in a state of collapse, becomes the sacrifical lamb that serves to unify and reinforce existing patterns of thought. This weighs heavily on the shoulders of the mutant…

?10) What’s your pictosophy ??// Cuál -o qué- es tu pictosofía?

Botanising upon the asphalt, to make objective the instant, the art of observation, holding still the things that will long be forgotten by the mind, finding a Proustian patch of yellow, a small voice making visible the subjective, and importantly, to share the experience.

10) ??11) What is it that does make sense to produce, in terms of culture, in this time??// ¿Qué es lo que tiene sentido producir, en términos de cultura, en este tiempo??

Disregarding the categorical awareness of the non-sensical in a hyper-real, digitally cool, accelerated yet petrified world, art which takes a moral rather than moralist position is probably most culturally relevant in our era of geopolitical turmoil. The arrest of Steve Kurtz in 2004 and effective censorship of his group gives food for thought, and might explain the sense of cultural paralysis and a return to ‘safe’ art in recent years. Of course there is nothing wrong with commercially viable safety, but there is a sense that something other, to complement it, is lacking.

11) 13) In which manner, if any, do ‘the possible’ and ‘the impossible’ interact with the ‘actual’?when seeing and image and thinking about it??// De qué manera, si hay alguna, “lo posible” y “lo imposible” interactúan con lo “real”?al ver una imagen y pensar en ella??
In the digital age, bombarded as we are with visual stimulae and information overload, conditions of possibility and impossibility form a dizzying kaleidoscope, almost as it were, reverting into eachother.
Informed knowledge and insightful analysis need time as a prerequisite and the possibility of ‘what could be’ (societal/ political etc) is no longer contemplated in any depth, before another sensorial overload begs attention, so we are left predominantly with an infantilizing of thought and language in the communication domain. Everything must be instantly attainable, and that which is not, becomes increasingly an impossibility. On a personal level, the act of contemplation has both a motivating and meditative function. After all, the art gallery is the secular temple of the modern age, brought to a computer screen near you by Flickr and other such networks, where a community of shared values exists. In this sense, it attains a transcendent function.

12) ?14) What do you consider to be the defining event of your generation? If?you don’t believe there is one, what effect do you think this lack has?on the society in which you live??// Cuál es el evento que, para ti, mejor define tu generación? Si no?encuentras ninguno, qué efecto tiene esta carencia para la sociedad en?la que vives??
Continuing genocides, geopolitical wars, climate change…it’s not the best of a happy bunch from which to draw a superlative.

13) ?15) NASA prepares a ship where they want to keep objects, works, or whatever, from different personalities ?that have reached a degree of excellence. Suppose they have also chosen you… What do you give them??// La NASA monta una nave en la que recopila objetos, obras, o lo que sea, de diversas personalidades de la especie humana?que han alcanzado el grado de excelencia. Pongamos que te han elegido a tí… ¿Que les darías?

A copy of the magazine!

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