Page 18 - Studio International - February 1967

Statements tion. We are forced to question our percep- what we were doing and what was being done in the
tions, which seem so reliable. When West, and, of course, a lot that we had in common.
by kinetic Duchamp set a two-dimensional disc human contact, but only on the most refined, associa-
For me a work of art is an essence, or a form, of
spinning and it looked solid, he was doing
artists the same thing. He made us question our tive level. A work of art is also a purposeful, finished
world with its unique internal laws and phenomena
perceptions. produced by the creative personality of the artist, it
The Impressionists, Cezanne, the Cubists and is a monument to those spiritual processes which
Mondrian broke up form into light and colour. They brought it into being, etc. It is a means of communica-
liberated these elements. tion between spirit and matter. . . . This is the key
I am not interested in connexions (les rapports) be- to the understanding of our creative activity. To my
tween things, but only with their relationships (rela- mind, notwithstanding how far man can go in de-
tions). I am not interested in the connexion of one stroying form, structure, visual aspects which have
colour with another or one line with another. Rela- been with us for a long time, creating by means of
tionships are more than connexions. movement new values, new reality—still, it is impos-
There need be no logical connexion between the sible to create something aesthetic if this does not
elements in my work. Two themes in a Bach fugue contain an image, definite structure, or system of
Le Parc have no logical connexion. The work is essentially a images, metaphors, changes of rhythm, etc. A man is
relationship. Not between two elements in the picture unique—his inner world is unique. I am opposed to the
Kineticism is not in itself a guarantee of
but between the principle which governs the picture— idea that to satisfy his longing to create new forms,
quality. It runs the risk of becoming a new for example, the dematerialization—and a general law and on account of his nihilism, man should lose more
academicism. It is positive in so far as it of the universe which conditions everything. You may valuable and eternal 'things'. . . .
touches the foundations of art, in so far as call these relationships chance relationships: they This is far too complex and intimate a problem, and
it produces new situations which carry cannot be foreseen. They happen by chance, by the it is simply impossible to explain myself with much
laws of chance. It may seem strange to talk of laws of detail or precision within this scope. To put it briefly, I
with them a different way of regarding and
chance, but chance occurrences do not come about think that KINETICISM is not only a new form of art,
judging works of art, and placing them independently of laws. It is just that the laws are very not even a new art as the cinema was in the 1890's.
within a social environment. Some mental hard to discover. That is why we call them laws of No, it is something far greater and more all-embrac-
attitudes tend to atrophy certain develop- chance. It is my aim to discover these laws. ing. One could not say that kineticism is a philosophy,
ments, and quite often artists fall in with nor could one say that it is only art. I am rather in-
clined to the view that it is the former.
these. Today certain lines of research run Lev Nusberg Just now I am working on two big projects. One of
the risk of being too easily classed as them is the establishment of the World Institute of
Almost from the beginning of my more or
kinetic art. This classification is all the more Kineticism—it is nearly ready; the other one is the
less conscious transfer of creative activity
dangerous since it fixes the limits of project of a kinetic labyrinth YESTERDAY—TODAY—
from painting and literature to spatio - TOMORROW. This is a real labyrinth, about 500
thought. It is too narrow a view to take.
physical objects (I say 'my creative activity', metres long, with several branches, designed for a
Probably one day it might be possible to
because in the U.S.S.R. I was the first-after two-hour performance, consisting of a large number
follow the evolution of the modern develop- of consecutive rooms which would have various
the avant-garde movement of the twenties -
ment in art as it liberated itself from pre- shapes and colours, and use will be made of film,
to engage in experiments with movement
established conceptions. music, mime, texts, kinetic objects, variations of
and materials in art; this happened at the smell, movement of air, etc. The theme: the Journey
end of 1961), a constant striving to create a of Man into the world of the stars, the splitting of the
Soto Ego, and Contemporary man seeing himself as he
NEW REALITY, to create kinetic objects on a
would appear to a man of the future. But It is not
My works are classical, without confusion grand scale-LIVING MACHINES-became theatre (and still a 'Magic Lantern').
or mystification. I work with very simple apparent. Of course, this striving was not a I am now preparing maquettes for the projected
elements. These elements in themselves striving to produce visual art, even in an decoration of Leningrad for the fiftieth anniversary of
are unimportant. A piece of wire, a few unusual form. The problem was to go the U.S.S.R.
lines-what are they ? beyond the frontiers of art as we usually
What are important are the relationships understand it. Through sheer inertia I Takis
(les relations) which they bring into being. continued for a while with visual art also.
A piece of wire against a moire back- The turning point was difficult and painful. I don't know if it's very important how I
ground becomes broken up. Its form is I may have been helped by the fact that I started to make kinetic sculpture, but in
'dematerialized'. It undergoes a transforma- had, for some years previously, occupied Greece you often see children take the roots
tion, a metamorphosis. You cannot say myself with philosophy. (I am not at all of certain vegetables, cut them to resemble
which is wire and which is ground. I hang prone to be sentimental about my bio- dolls and hang them on a string, letting
yellow rods in front of the same background, graphy. I have briefly mentioned this to them float in the wind. That's one thing that
and black spots appear on the yellow. make what follows clearer.) fascinated me when I was a child. But,
Where has the colour come from ? To this day I greatly admire Kazimir Malevich. No once, I missed the train coming from London
artist (with the possible exception of Klee) has had a
This has to do with reality, with percep- to Paris. In Calais I was obliged to wait
greater influence on me, a more blessed influencel three or four hours for the next train to get
He summed up all 'classical' plastic art. For a number
of reasons I did not come to Op Art directly, but I set into Paris and was fascinated by the
The statement by Takis is taken from his address at out and developed in a different direction, though 'signalization' of the railways. I drew some
a kinetic sculpture symposium held at the University externally my work was a bit like Op Art, the kind that sketches, thinking how dramatic this
Art Museum, University of California, Berkeley, on was already being done by some painters. What's 'signalization' was, and how necessary a
March 18, 1966; that by Cruz-Diez was first published more, let me say that the term 'optical art' itself was
as a catalogue introduction; and the statement on not heard of in our country until 1962. But all my later part of our century this was. When I came
the Centre directed by Marcello Salvadori is extracted activity, including the formation of the 'Movement' back to Paris I started making a sort of
from the 'Objects' of the Centre. All other statements group in September 1962, showed more and more imitation of those signals, and as I used
are published here for the first time. clearly and tangibly the essential difference between thin wires as bodies to hold the signals,
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