[Nettime-ro] very funny

Fragment din

“I simply couldn’t do the same thing all my life ...”
interview with Daniel Spoerri by Márta Nagy and Lajos Adamik

aparut in Balkon 13 (iarna 2003)

(…) Have you been to Romania since then?
Never. And now when I’m closer to Romania than ever before, right now, today I mean, I told to my wife that I would never go back there. The old places don’t exist anymore, the street names in Galati are changed...
Galati is still an important port on the Danube ...
Yes, close to the Danube Delta and to Ukraine. But if we come so far and cannot get rid of our roots let me tell you something interesting! Ten years ago, at Beaubourg, that is to say Pompidou Center, a woman approached me, an usher, and told me: Mr. Spoerri, you were born in Romania, I am a Romanian too and I would like to say that you could offer us a painting of yours, to us Romanians because you are esteemed in Romania and it is known that you were born there. And I said: if you tell me where the Galati Contemporary Art Museum is, because I was born there, ok; if you give me their address I’ll write. And indeed, the woman found the address and I wrote. More than that, through another Romanian, I contacted them by phone; they told me they were happy and of course it would be great to receive one of my paintings and they would be even happier to receive some catalogs. Thus, I made a 7 kilos package with catalogs and sent it registered. But miracle of miracles, three months later it came back. Nobody took it. Since then I’ve never heard of them again. Although there were many occasions; in Venice I went on purpose to the Romanian stand and told them that I’m Spoerri – oh, you, of course, the painting! We will contact you for that. But they didn’t, not even five years later, not seven years later. Recently, at Jeu de Paumes, a fat guy comes to me, he takes a photo of me with the best Canon camera and says that he is the director of the Modern Art Museum in Bucharest and that he would love to receive the painting because all he has are ten thousand portraits of Ceausescu; in the old times that was considered modern art. But he hasn’t called me back either since then! About three weeks ago the woman in Paris called me and said that she spoke to the minister and he was delighted and will personally take care of the painting transportation. In fact I demanded something too: the transportation costs would have to be supported by the Romanian side. It seems that it became a difficulty impossible to overcome! No, it wasn’t like that, I remember now exactly: the minister told me that I have to declare in front of a public notary that I offer the painting. So much for roots! (…)