ephemeropteræ 2012/12 – Tribute to Franz West. Charles Bernstein, Tris Vonna-Michell

Franz West, one of the greatest Austrian artists of our time, was scheduled to perform his new piece along with Charles Bernstein and Tris Vonna-Michell on the ephemeropterae stage. Sadly, Franz West passed away seven weeks ago, on July 25, 2012. This ephemeropteræ event is dedicated to Franz West and remembers him with the projection of his Verbal contribution from 2006, a 11:47 minute performance recorded at his studio on Esteplatz in Vienna. 
 

– The Lie of Art

I don’t want innovative art.
I don’t want experimental art.
I don’t want conceptual art.
I don’t want abstract art.
I don’t want figurative art.
I don’t want original art.
I don’t want formal art.
I don’t want emotional art.
I don’t want nostalgic art.
I don’t want sentimental art.
I don’t want complacent art.
I don’t want erotic art.
I don’t want boring art.
I don’t want mediocre art.
I don’t want political art.
I don’t want empty art.
I don’t want baroque art.
I don’t want mannered art.
I don’t want minimal art.
I don’t want plain art.
I don’t want vernacular art.
I don’t want artificial art.
I don’t want pretentious art.
I don’t want idea art.
I don’t want thing art.
I don’t want naturalistic art.
I don’t want rhetorical art.
I don’t want dull art.
I don’t want rhapsodic art.
I don’t want rigid art.
I don’t want informal art.
I don’t want celebratory art.
I don’t want cerebral art.
I don’t want formulaic art.
I don’t want sardonic art.
I don’t want sadistic art.
I don’t want masochistic art.
I don’t want trendy art.
I don’t want adolescent art.
I don’t want senescent art.
I don’t want grumpy art.
I don’t want happy art.
I don’t want severe art.
I don’t want demanding art.
I don’t want tempestuous art.
I don’t want incendiary art.
I don’t want commercial art.
I don’t want moralizing art.
I don’t want transgressive art.
I don’t want violent art.
I don’t want exemplary art.
I don’t want uplifting art.
I don’t want degrading art.
I don’t want melancholy art.
I don’t want chaotic art.
I don’t want provocative art.
I don’t want self-satisfied art.
I don’t want nurturing art.
I don’t want genuine art.
I don’t want derivative art.
I don’t want religious art.
I don’t want authentic art.
I don’t want sincere art.
I don’t want sacred art.
I don’t want profane art.
I don’t want mystical art.
I don’t want voyeuristic art.
I don’t want traditional art.
I don’t want expectable art.
I don’t want hopeful art.
I don’t want irreverent art.
I don’t want process art.
I don’t want static art.
I don’t want urban art.
I don’t want pure art.
I don’t want ideological art.
I don’t want spontaneous art.
I don’t want pious art.
I don’t want comprehensible art.
I don’t want enigmatic art.
I don’t want epic art.
I don’t want lyric art.
I don’t want familiar art.
I don’t want alien art.
I don’t want human art.


Charles Bernstein is an American poet, editor, theorist and scholar (University of Pennsylvania, Princeton University). He is the co-founder of PennSounds and the Electronic Poetry Center Buffalo. Bernstein and Bruce Andrews edited the L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E magazine between 1978 and 1981. During this period, Bernstein also published three more books of his own poetry, Parsing (1976), Shade (1978) and Poetic Justice (1979), while earning a living as a freelance medical writer. He has written five libretti for operas and published widely in such media as Harper’s Magazine, Critical Inquiry, Harvard and Oxford University Press, etc. 
 

Tris Vonna-Michell is a British artist (born 1982), who stages installations and performs narrative structures, using spoken word, sound composition and photography. In his fast speech performances he constructs nets of narratives, using various demonstrational media. “His performances are the mise-en-scène of stories which he creates by coalescing heroic and less heroic moments, with swift links between far away geographical places and people not belonging to the same time era.” (Caterina Riva)

Tris Vonna-Michell has previously performed and shown at Moderna Museet, Stockholm (2012); San Francisco MOMA (2012); Tate Modern, London (2012); 'British Art Show 7: In the Days of the Comet', (2011); Fotofestival 4, Mannheim, Ludwigshafen, Heidelberg (2011); Metro Pictures, New York (2011); Manifesta 08, Cartagena and Murcia, Spain (2010). The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation has announced Tris Vonna-Michell among the six finalists of its 2012 Hugo Boss Prize.