The artist is always free and never free

I should have not interrupted him so much ... Why am I always fretting and fidgeting?

Interview with artist Miroslaw Balka, currently at Tate Modern with the sculpture 'How It Is'

N. So, would you like to start and talk first about the installation and then I will ask you some more questions. I would like to hear from you - because I think I have been reading everything that is in the press about the installation - what it is about, what was your inspiration and what was your message

B. Well you start with a very difficult question because it’s a too generic question and it’s like asking about the sense of life so if you will start with a more precise question that would be better I think

N. Ok yes. All the reviews that I have read say that ‘How It Is’ is about the Holocaust but I also read that you never mentioned this, you never said that it is about the Holocaust

B. It’s not about the Holocaust. I think the work of art in general has many layers and so it depends on the viewer and the meaning the viewers bring to the work so for example the viewer can interpret it as about the Holocaust and that is fine. It’s like the square of Malevich: it can be about the Holocaust, it can be about pants but it’s not my intention to talk about the Holocaust.

N. Have you read the articles especially in the British press?

B. Yes I have read them but I think people write what they want to write and you cannot say what they should write. They are following this track because maybe it’s more attractive. It’s a jungle, in general.

N. Is this a stronger appeal to people?

B. Yes … what can I say… In some way as I said at the beginning it can be about the Holocaust as well but it wasn’t this the point where it started.

N. When you worked on this installation what you wanted to create for the public? What kind of experience did you have in mind?

B. Well first of all this is a sculpture, not an installation and this is the difference for you. I never think about what I want to say to the viewer. I think about creating the questions for myself and then because the work of art is shown to the people as well so they can, as I said in the beginning, they can experience something because everybody is different I think. I think that there is no global reading of the work of art and I think this depends on the reader so somebody is very clever, somebody is stupid so it’s very difficult to make a general reading of the work of art.

N. Why did you say sculpture and you refuse to say installation, is it something important for you?

B. I have tried for many years to show the difference between the installation and the sculpture. The sculpture is more about taking care of the material; an installation can be built on a site and then can reconstructed in another place with completely different material so for me I think that what I do is sculpture. Installation is very much something that is just very temporary and use the elements to create something that later will be taken away.

N. What was your relation with the Tate Modern when producing this sculpture and what was your relationship with the museum. What I would like to ask you is if you are happy about the exhibition now that it’s been going on since October? Are you happy with the results and how the public is receiving it?

B. I was happy with the results. I think that part of the public was happy with the results as well and I think that Tate is happy with the results too. And it was a different experience because before I never worked with such a big project, which is on for such a long time. So it was a new experience for me and also for the curator of the Tate Modern, Hellen S who is responsible for this project. So at the beginning for me it wasn’t an easy experience but at the end you know how to deal with something like this. At the beginning there were some problems, I mean the main issues were with the health and safety regulations. So it took a lot of time to deal with this.

N. Somebody said that when the man broke his nose at the opening you were secretly having a laugh.

B. Me?

N. Yes, that’s what the newspapers said.

B. No, no this was The Evening Standard. You cannot read this kind of newspaper. I mean somebody who was an idiot who run in the dark room …

N. I just wanted to ask you about the audience as you said this sculpture is their experience. First of all I went there a few times and the room was not so dark; people were entering with mobile phones, sometimes screaming and there were many tourists. Did this upset you? And do you think something could have been done differently?

B. You cannot say that I was upset because there are different reactions, you know. I have been there myself only a couple of times in different period of times and sometimes it was a very bad experience, very noisy. But sometimes it was very quiet so it shows that this artwork is working in time and it’s different on Monday, which is quiet, and on Saturday when is crazy and half the people walking on the Millennium Bridge enter the Tate Modern. And there are different reactions but I don’t want to say that the best reaction is the silence, contemplation. I think people can get more when it’s quite instead of being in a crowd, which is noisy. But I think that for children this experience of a huge space where they can run and scream it’s something interesting, it’s curious you know. I did not expect kids or teenagers to enter this chamber. There are different reactions, sometimes it’s the reaction to the dark. Any reaction is ok. I enjoyed it more when it was quiet. There are not too many places to be quiet you know.

N. No especially in London. Unilever is the sponsor. How does this affect your work? Is it just that they provide the money for you and it doesn’t make any difference at all?

B. The Tate work with them more directly and they are a very modern sponsor. They know that they are not professional in the matter of choosing art, in saying what is good and what is bad and they trust the institution, the Tate, to reach demand so … the people are quite nice, they are very nice. I met the general chief of Unilever and he was a nice man and I had a very good time but they didn’t put any pressure on my work.

N. Where are you going next with your work?

B. Because this project took me a long time more than usual because normally when you have an exhibition after the opening you are leaving next day so you go on to another project. But this project was a bit different because it took much more energy from me. So this PR relations, the situation around, all these interviews… and so I spent much more energy than usual.

N. So the Tate organized the interviews for you. I remember there was a night when you were releasing a conference for the press in London at the Tate right after the opening.

B. Yes this is how the exhibition works and how the institution works. So because I did not have any experience in this field I followed their suggestions and tried to be nice because they actually put energy into the project and you couldn’t just say, well… thank you very much so I made an effort. With some limits like in Poland for example there were some stupid newspapers or the magazines for men and women which tried to interview me, you know, so for some of them I refused …

N. What kind of interviews they were asking you? Like, more about your private life maybe?

B. Sometimes they were about how the artist eats, or how to look, or what kind of underpants I wear etc … so this is what I didn’t follow. And coming back to your question this project took me much more time than I expected and finally I will be really free in April when this project will be over and of course I am working on other projects. My first exhibition will start on the 1st of April, almost at the same time when the Tate exhibition will end and it will be in a gallery in Israel in Tel Aviv. Two weeks later it will be the opening of my solo project in Germany then in May I will have workshops in Slovakia and then I just came back from Spain where I did something in September so I am slowly coming back to life.

N. Why, did you have a period when you were not working?

B. No but I mean you are always working in my profession so sometimes work doesn’t mean that you produce goods. It’s culture. Your working is also reading, thinking which can also be a source of experience. For art and culture in general it’s not like an office job. The artist is always free and never free.