LARRY KORNFELD INTERVIEW with Steve Bottoms, 9.95 - Judson ...

happened with the best of Off-Off-Broadway.on that stage, and that was so exciting.People could be dangling by one threadLK: Oh, personally, when I was with the Living Theatre, we were what you calledpacifist anarchists, whatever that meant. I knew then, I don't know now ... Was therepolitical theatre? Sure, Macbird was political... In the broader sense, see I had to gothrough a whole thing about this because I wanted to be political, I wanteddesperately to be political, and do a piece that was a political piece ... and the storywas that it was political if you talked about politics ... or if you took a stand on anissue ... and I guess what most of us realised, either at the time or later, was that whatwe were doing was in itself political. The action was political. The action of beinginvolved in a theatre that is, in its very bones, is critical... or ecstatic ... about aspectsof our life today. Even if it's from an aesthetic point of view. If it is facing the issuesof life now, and not just running them through the mill over and over again, then it'spolitical. It's nice when a piece comes out, everybody recognises, 'Man! You took astand!' Most of the time artwork like that is preaching to the convinced. It's nice,because they're very supportive of that point of view. But for an art form to be trulypolitical, I mean to be truly original or truly breaking through ... I mean Gertrude Steinwas a very apolitical person (in fact she was probably a fascist) .... but her actions inthe world, her art was always political in the way it changed perception. Jacques Tati!Did those marvellous pieces, he was political in the sense that you can't look at theworld the same way. I think one of the most political movies is Wild Strawberries,Bergman [?] piece, an intimate little story about old age ... and you come out of thetheatre and you can't see the world the same way! I mean anything that... Rilke is thefamous example, Rilke in the Apollo sonnet, says it changed: it changed, if you see it,you can't be the same, you've gotta be changed, and that is political!LK: Well everybody interprets that different ways. For Oscar Wilde it was a politicalrallying cry! It was the way he confronted the whole world! .,. What do you think ofthe term health for health's sake? It's nice to be healthy. In order to be healthy youhave to eat well, you have to do all those things, you also have to have good genesand a lot of luck. Art for art's sake ... ? I think the term art for art's sake is a pejorativephrase that the world uses in order to put down things they don't understand. Or,works that they feel are too private. And there have been some artists who havebrought up the banner of art for art's sake meaning that they pay attention only totheir work. But you know, you can be the most fierce political activist if you'rewriting a poem - really writing a poem - or a play or a piece of music. When you'redoing that, the art is what you're doing, the subject matter... I think it's a term thatartists should not worry about. Because when you're doing your art, you're doing yourart; when you're taking a shit you're taking a shit.