March 11 ? Sept. 12, 2010 - Fondation Cartier pour l'art ...

INTERVIEW REAlIZED BY MICHEl TEMMAN (EXCERPTS FROM THE CATAlOG)
INTERVIEW WITH
BEAT TAKESHI KITANO
—
miChel temmAn Your exhibition at the Fondation Cartier
is a new chapter in your already prolific career. Is it like
a dream come true?
beAt tAkeShi kitAno I feel like a mountain climber who has
been asked to climb Mt. Everest without a supply of oxygen.
When the Fondation Cartier asked me to do this exhibition, it
might have been the lack of oxygen that led me to say: “Okay,
I’ll do it.” Anyway, I think I was somewhat dehydrated. After
things had gotten off the ground, when it became hard to say,
“In fact, I’m not really sure of myself anymore,” I got worried.
We had gone past the point of no return, and I wanted to say
to the Fondation Cartier: “Wait a second! Are we actually
going to do this exhibition?” […]
miChel temmAn When you were working on the
exhibition, what were your priorities and what was your
greatest desire? What was going on in your head?
beAt tAkeShi kitAno I like the painting and the work of
Renaissance painters like leonardo da Vinci. What I admire
about them is that, throughout their lives, they didn’t confine
themselves to one path or define themselves by a single interest.
Da Vinci was a painter, but he was also a scientist. I like
the idea that he was able to combine elements from different
fields and that this combination made up his artistic oeuvre.
He was constantly doing new things with his hands. I like that
approach, that characteristic of the Renaissance artists: their
versatility. Nowadays, however, it has become terribly common
to segregate all of these different fields. We think we have to
separate each discipline and clearly distinguish artists from
scientists. Specialization is something that is becoming more
and more apparent in our times. However, for the education
of our children—and this is, in fact, true not only for children,
but for everyone—it is much more stimulating and exciting
to jam everything together in one pot. And, of course, being
a comedian, I can’t help but incorporate silliness and mockery
into the installations and paintings in this exhibition. But
who knows what will happen? Someone, a child perhaps, will
be astonished by a certain installation and want to become
a scientist. Another kid might want to become an artist, and
another, a comedian. […]
miChel temmAn The Director of the Fondation Cartier
Hervé Chandès chose the title Gosse de peintre
(“the painter’s kid”) for the exhibition. This was the
nickname you were given in school by other children
who made fun of your father’s job…
beAt tAkeShi kitAno Yes, it’s true, and in fact the title conveys
the message I wanted to express. Other kids often mocked
me because I was the son of a house painter. That happened
a lot when I was in primary school, junior high and even high
school. They would say: “Oh, you’re the house painter’s kid!”
I heard it all the time. That’s partly why I drew away from the
5
other kids when I was in school. I don’t know how things are in
Europe, but in Japan house painters are ridiculed because you
see them wearing their used coveralls stained with paint, and as
a result, their dirty clothes make them a target of derision. So in
school, I kept my distance from the bullying and the teasing of
my classmates, and in fact I liked being on the outside looking
in. I was like a spectator observing them objectively, it seemed
to me, from the outside. And I think this helped me later on,
especially when I was starting out as a stand-up comic. Watching
people, knowing how to observe them, is the most valuable skill
a comedian can have. I had learned how to observe the kids who
made fun of me, their behavior and ways of thinking, and that
habit later became very useful, it became an asset for me.[…]
miChel temmAn It [the exhibition] reveals you, for
the first time, as a visual artist. And it includes so many
different forms of artistic expression: it could have been
called Takeshi’s Vertigo. After Beat Takeshi, the TV star, and
Kitano, the filmmaker, is this the birth of a new Takeshi?
beAt tAkeShi kitAno Well, when I work on a television program
or on a feature film, there are always certain limits. For
example, with TV shows there are restrictions in terms of
content. The producers and directors, of course, tell me I can
do anything I want. But in reality, when you’re working with a
commercial network, you have to take the sponsors into consideration,
which means that you can’t criticize them on the
show. This is also applicable to movies, and the film industry
has its own constraints. For this exhibition, on the other hand,
I was given free rein. There were no restrictions—outside of
the physical limitations, of course—and that was quite new
for me. It was probably the most “anything goes” situation I’ve
ever experienced, and I took it as far as I wanted to go.
—
PubliCAtion
Beat Takeshi Kitano, Gosse de peintre
Opening the door to Kitano’s
world, this catalogue offers
a behind-the-scenes look at the
exhibition. Drawings of objects,
blueprints of the installations
and paintings by the artist wind
back to the genesis of an
extraordinary project. Through
a rich iconography drawn
from his films and top TV shows,
the reader retraces in images
Kitano’s exceptional career.
limited edition of 150 box sets,
containing a book signed by
the artist and a litograph. Price
available on demand. Exclusively
sold at the Fondation Cartier
pour l’art contemporain Bookshop
and on fondation.cartier.com
Fondation Cartier pour l’art
contemporain, Paris /
Actes Sud, Arles
Softback, 24 × 30 cm, 264 pages,
200 color illustrations, 43 €