Jenny Holzer and Tristan Tzara's meeting

(At the Jeff Koons art show)

Tzara- Hi I'm Tristan Tzara what’s your name?

Holzer- Jenny Holzer, I began as an abstract artist practicing printmaking and painting.

Tazra- Oh that’s great, I am an avant-garde poet and performing artist. So what is your main focus in your work?

Holzer- my use of words and ideas in public space is my main focus. I mainly utilize street posters, LED signs, bronze plaques stone benches and footstools, stickers, photographs, sound, video, light projection and even condoms.

Tzara: that’s great, I believe that in the art world, new artists protests he no longer paints but creates directly in stone, wood, iron etc. Your mediums are intriguing I think all pictorial and plastic work is useless.

Holzer: Why do you think that?

Tzara: Painting is like making two lines parallel that meet on a canvas before our eyes in a reality which transposes other conditions and possibilities into a world. That world isn’t defined or specified in that work. What is your favorite work you have produced? Tell me a little about it.

Holzer- My piece Truisms (1977) is probably my most well known work. I compiled a series of statements and aphorisms. I publicized them in a variety of ways. I list them on street posters, in telephone booths. My work was displayed on one of the Times Squares gigantic LED billboards in 1982.

Tzara- what was your purpose of this piece and presenting it the way you chose to?

Holzer: Truisms are "truths" that lie at the boundary of truth and our perception of truths in the post-modern landscape. As a fixture in public space, they are in jarring juxtaposition to the commodities world around us of mass media, advertising, product marketing, and all the various "non-truisms" that are fed to us everyday .the Truisms are an act of artistic mediation, I insert my work and ideas into the real world where they activate critique and analysis of surrounding cultural, economic and political conditions.

Tzara: your work is a somewhat a form of advertisement, which is an element of poetry. An artist does not have to be a journalist and their art does not have to make sense because I believe the world doesn’t make sense. What was the most fun you had with producing your work?

Holzer: My work Protect Me From What I want, was the 15^th iteration of the famous BMW Art Car Project. The car was covered with surprising messages that will probably never lose their relevance. The text was written in metal foil and outlined with phosphorescent paint. The phrase “you are so complex, you don’t respond to danger” is written on the cars side pods. What is crucial for the perception of my word art is the context in which it is presented. “Protect me from what I want” is seen against the backdrop of the most spectacular car race in the world, with its battle for places and prestige. That quote refers to the world of motor racing.

Other current pieces Ive made are "War" texts (1992), "Lustmord" (1993-1994) and "Erlauf Peace" texts (1995), and these focused on the atrocities of war. The "War" text, first shown in installation at the Kunsthalle in Basel, Switzerland, speaks of wartime disaster. "Lustmord" is written from three different perspectives (the Observer, the Perpetrator and the Victim) regarding the rape of women in wartime. The "Lustmord" photographs, images of the text written on human skin, originally were presented in the magazine of the Suddeutsche Zeitung, reaching five hundred thousand readers. The ink used on the cover of this magazine contained women's blood.

Tzara- I appreciate your art techniques. Logic is always wrong. I like that your art makes people rethink their daily commodities and see the different functions ready-mades can have. We should grab lunch sometime so we can discuss my art sometime.

Holzer - That would be great here’s my business card. See ya.