Micha Zweifel

Synopsis of a conversation between Robert Filliou and Diter Rot

Filliou interviews Rot for his book project on teaching and learning as performing arts and kicks off the conversation by talking about animals.

‘What do we ask the pigs?’

Rot continues to talk about how people try to convince each other instead of just stating what they want:

‘And I told some of them, that they think, democracy is, where everybody has the right to speak. (...) But then has everybody the right to convince other people? (...) No, this is not democracy’

What is wisdom? Comparing animals, plants and stones, Rot concludes:

‘The wisest are the stones. In any case they get what they want. They don’t even die.’

And what could be teached:

‘...getting an insight and ideas about what field is free for their wishes (...) how to formulate their wishes...’

Rot has that conviction because he observed that:

‘They wanted to do something which they would be able to call, and other people would call art, whatever that was at that time and place’

This is important because:

‘(doing) what you want could make you calm and or happy, (...)’

Therfore you got to

‘find out the ways to do it.’

Icons & B/W, 2011

Together with four people I walked towards the art space. Each of us carried a bright yellow formwork panel of 30x40 centimeters. The walk from the train station to the space took half an hour and we were late for the opening. It was a bright sunny day but the space, situated on the shadowy side of the valley and under a car road leading out of the city, was rather cold. We arrived with four panels, one was already installed, on the opposite side of the valley. I installed three more panels, leaning them against one wall each. The fourth side of the space is open, facing the valley and the platform leading to the space. Time passed. I shook two spray cans, black and white. Standing at the edge of the platform, I sprayed them simultaneously towards the bright panel shining in the far distance. We left.

For Alice, 2011

The architectural situation of the exhibition space was both, starting point as well as material of the work: It was a large space, a former depot, that was intersected by rows of columns supporting the ceiling. I used the columns as part of my work. Further on I brought some simple metal stools, made in China, and a stack of photocopies. Some stools were leaning on a column and two, stapled on top of each other, served as plinth for the stack. The stack bore the trace of spray paint which was applied in the shape of a smile. The photocopies included texts and image material that I collected preparing the work: Texts about notions of the primary directions, vertical and horizontal; texts about signs in urban landscape; pages on pillars in greek antiquity, Texts on the sculpture of Brancusi, Giacommeti to Morris; and Texts about other related subjects.

Untitled (cheshire horse), 2012

A friend of mine, Raphael, called me last april whether I wanted to do a show in St. Gallen together with him in june. It was evening and I was working in the alps at the time. A couple of weeks later it appeared that the people running the gallery did not want us showing simultaneously. I was out of work and spent my first free weeks in Brussels where I made a drawing that combined the motive of the cheshire cat with that of the trojan horse, scanned it and sent it to Raphael. I asked him to execute my drawing on the gallery walls. He was free to interpret my work in any way he wanted. Raphael chose to paint it with acrylic onto the wall in a corner of the gallery. later on I have seen a video-recording of him drawing the cheshire horse very carefully.