5 June - John Waters in Venice

From Artforum International:

"In anticipation of the Venice Biennale's opening, Monopol has published an interview with the celebrated director John Waters, a member of this year's biennale jury. When asked if he was surprised to be selected, Waters said, "Others are probably more surprised than me . . . I'm a great fan of this year's curator Bice Curiger. So I feel very honored. There must be some people in the art world who are irritated to see that the master of bad taste is on the jury of the most important art show. But contemporary art and bad taste have more in common than many might like to admit." Surprisingly, Waters has never been to Venice. "I've been almost everywhere, even to Bologna, the Italian capital of the blow job as I was told," he said, adding, "but a jury is lots of work, so I don't think I'll have a lot of time for wild nights, but who knows?"

And as interviewed in ARTINFO.com

What aspect of the Biennale are you most looking forward to?Jury folie a famille

How many times have you been to the Biennale before? Zero

What's your plan of attack for this Biennale? Ruthless exploration

What's your position on gondolas? If they tip over I can swim.

What's the last show that you saw? Louise Lawler at Metro Pictures Gallery, New York

What's the last show that surprised you? Ellsworth Kelly at Matthew Marks Gallery, New York

Why? How NEW all the work seemed.

Do you collect anything? Buildings of Disaster by Boym Partners

What's the most indispensable artwork you own? Oversized Fischli & Weiss "Airport" photograph

What's the last artwork you purchased? Karin Sander mold painting, "Gebrauchsbild"

What's the weirdest thing you ever saw happen in a museum, gallery, art fair, or biennial? Glory holes in bathrooms

What's your art-world pet peeve? Outrageous escalation of auction house surcharges

What's the last great book you read? "Humiliation" by Wayne Koestenbaum

What work of art do you wish you owned? "Carpet #9" by Mike Kelley

What would you do to get it? If I was younger, burglary. Now that I'm older I guess that I'd sell my soul.

What under-appreciated artist, gallery, or work do you think people should know about? George Stoll

Who's your favorite living artist? Cy Twombly

What are your hobbies? How dare you presume I'm a dabbler!

images: John Waters in Venice, Water's artwork, the famous Divine

27 Jan - William Burroughs: A Man Within

LAUNCHPROJECTS - I just returned from the documentary William Burroughs: A Man Within at the Center for Contemporary Arts. Having read and appreciated Burrough's writing, I knew just enough about his life to admire him as both literary and cultural icon. I had no idea that among other things he was the gun-obsessed grandfather of the punk rock movement.

The film includes interviews such notable rebels as John Waters, Laurie Anderson, Peter Weller, Patti Smith, Iggy Pop, Gus Van Sant, and Sonic Youth (just to name a few) and explores how the Harvard educated heir to the Burroughs’ adding machine estate struggled throughout his life with addiction, companionship, and tragedy. One of the stunning revelations in the film is that in an altered state and quite young Burroughs accidentally shot his wife in the head in Mexico City while demonstrating his "William Tell Act". To add to his wife's death, his son Billy died of acute alcoholism at the age of 33 in an effort to gain the approval and attention of his otherwise occupied father.

Larger than life, Burroughs took every drug available and was addicted to "junk" most of his life. He was also a pioneer of the queer and drug culture in the 1950s and was unquestionably a literary genius. In an article for Drone Magazine, an unattributed writer states that "Burroughs was a man who still continues to defy categorisation, in his work, personal traits, lifestyle and aesthetic. It’s this point that makes him -- to this day -- the most dangerous cultural figure of the last hundred years (if not longer)".

Burroughs once stated “what can seem negative can become valuable for a writer." He found inspiration in that dark side - addiction, death, guns, anarchy. He was the poster boy for the tortured genius and it is no wonder the likes of Kurt Cobian, Frances Bacon, Andy Warhol, and Patty Smith held him so dear. Burroughs also opened the door for experimental writing, homosexuality, and the awareness of drug addiction in the United States. Burroughs changed US laws on censorship with the publication of Naked Lunch and inspired an entirely new genre of musical expression - punk. In all of his danger, edge, and iconoclasm, Burroughs effectively paved the way to a more open cultural space in the politically conservative climate of 1950's America.

"You know, they ask me if I were on a desert island and I knew nobody would ever see what I wrote, would I go on writing. My answer is most emphatically yes. I would go on writing for company. Because I'm creating an imaginary — it's always imaginary — world in which I would like to live." - William Burroughs

Images: William Burroughs with Mick Jagger and Andy Warhol, on the shooting range.