Euroart
Summer 2008
Interview with Kubilay Akman for www.euroartmagazine.com
With your own expression, “contortion, collapsibility and modes of idea production” have been a crucial concept for your art. Can you explain please, how did you realize this concept in your projects?
When i started Ananatural Production in 2003 one of my main interests was multitasking, multitasking as a manifestation of Deleuzian interconnectedness, and all terrain, all range activity. Contortion and collapsibility are I think good examples of this multitasking, both as system and a methodology. I have always been fascinated by contortion and collapsibility, not just as displays of flexibility and efficiency but also in their playfulness and the immense freedom thy offer. There is a loss of "figurative" in contortion, it implies becoming and transmuting, a real physical and conceptual alchemy. It is something that I apply to all of my projects, from the initial idea to the manifestation of it, like taking an idea for a ride, a rollercoaster, taking it from spark to product to quality control. So all the projects produced, starting with the AP mail order catalogues to videos, products and services go through this process of contortion and collapsibility.
Can we consider your artistic perspective as a critique against the everyday life circles in which modern individuals are alienated?
I am quite weary of the term CRITIQUE, it rings negative and distant, too close to "critical", but luckily not too far from cricket! Of course I try to be analytical and discerning, and I think being a contemporary artists requires being professionally aware and conscious of the contemporary world one lives in, of being present. Regarding “against the everyday”, I am a big fan of Martha Stewart, I think she is someone who has brought back the decorative as comfort, and DIY which is something I am very interested in, it has to do with daily practice, along the lines of Huizinga and Caillois writing on play, game, ritual... EVERYDAY is her brand, which I find fascinating, almost revolutionary, a very persistent, global brand that tries to act as a remedy against alienation. I guess all brands aim to do that, Ananatural Production included! Here at AP we aim to fight alienation and suffering and to bring joy and wonder.
You are coming from an artist family and your parents are talented artists who opened new horizons in Singapore, in Yugoslavia and in global art world. What are their influences over your artistic style?
I am very lucky to come from the family that I come from. Besides being extremely fun and entertaining, it is also a serious support system that encourages and nurtures me. Obviously my parents come from a different generation and their work is different from mine, however they have installed and stimulated some core values that inform my work. Besides taking me to all the museums and galleries (and parties!) since I was born, they have taught me the importance of system and methodology, the discipline required for professional art practice, they have been in it for the long run! It gives me a certain comfort, I do not feel so much the pressure and the stress to "make it", to be a seasonal star which seems to be an acute side effect of working in the art world today. Of course it gets to me and I get greedy just like everyone else but it does give me a perspective. It is about endurance, and the fact that art making should, and can be integrated into ones life in a balanced and meaningful way. It is very wholesome!
You have been in collaboration with Marina Abramovic for your new project. Can you tell us please the concept and details of the Money Mountain?
Working with Marina is amazing, it is like being hugged by history and getting catapulted into the future yet being grounded, and she does that in the most nurturing and generous of ways. She has been curating a series of performances for Artists Space, titled “When time becomes form”, inviting artists to work with durational pieces and she invited me to do something, we were on a panel together last year and have been in dialogue for a while. She was interested in the Money Laundering performance I previously did for Art in General show at the UBS bank and I have wanted to take it further so this was the perfect situation to evolve the piece. It was the first time for me to do a performance for 8 hours straight, 5 days continuously; it was a real taste of endurance! The initial idea, literally laundering money which I did daily for three months a couple of hours a day in the lobby of a major bank, was developed for an art gallery over five days. I also wanted to push further this idea of money as material, and a sort of tribute to uncle Scrooge, those wild, almost bucolic images of him diving through money. I want to make a situation that demystifies and re-romanticizes banking, a return to idyllic, sincere, authentic home economics. It is said that Scrooge had three cubic acres of money, it is also said that “he could no longer sleep at night because all the money he was storing under his mattress raised his bed too close to the ceiling, necessitating a more suitable storage facility for his money”. I used the entire budget as volume, making a mini mountain, which even included a bed, we took turns resting! In a sense the piece became magnified and intensified. It was also interesting to have assistants (fellow performers who volunteered) who became collaborators, to see them engage with the audience and assimilate and percolate the situation. One of the performers, Adina Bier, turned out to be an amazing knitter so we decided she should knit one to one money, which then evolved into money cozies, they were a great hit!
What are the advantages/disadvantages of being an international artist?
It is all good, I feel really fortunate to be able to do my work, when it starts being a disadvantage I will stop.
Asia has a growing power in contemporary art scene. What is the position of Singapore in this picture?
Singapore is a fascinating place, in many ways it has been propelled into the future so it has the problems of the future as well. So if I am to solve problems of alienation this is the place to be and observe! Also, for me it is the best place to make the work, both in terms of generating it and producing it. It is super efficient and smooth, one can get things done here, and there is a lot of support from the government and the national arts council, they have been very generous with artists, me included and of course it makes me feel even more patriotic and proud to be a Singaporean artist! In terms of the scene, I think it has grown and crystallized enormously over the last years. There are a number of curators and artists who have been making really brilliant and relevant work. There are also a handful of collectives that have been operating in interesting new ways.
Is the Balkans also influential on your art, as much as Asia?
Well, I am half Serbian half Romanian and I have spent more then half of my life in Asia, it would be interesting to make a chart with percentages and diagrams of influences! The fact is I have been working as an artist from Asia and I can only hope that my work makes sense in Singapore as much as in NY or Belgrade, but I have never shown my work in the Balkans and I think that would be the most telling context, to engage with the audience. Actually this year in October will be the first time I show in the Balkans! I was invited by Ami Barak to the Bucharest Young Artists Biennial. I am very much looking forward to it.
What are your new projects for the future?
I am currently preparing a new piece for the Biennale of Sydney curated by Carolyn Christov Bakargiev, it opens in early June and I will be a doing a performance and a product. Also shooting a new video for the Bucharest Biennial and working on some new ideas...an idea a day keeps the doctor away!
