The Impossible Tasks is a body of my work that centers on specific geographical locations, which, by the layering of various historical, economic, social and even geological conditions have fallen “out of time”, and removed from the social and political sphere. These locations have become vast no-man’s-lands outside the grasp of democracy and politics, outside the world, even though they remain very much part of it. I am fascinated with these sites — much like a rabbit paralyzed in the serpent’s gaze. I cannot resist this fascination because these locations constitute a mammoth rupture of meaning, a fragmentation which I try to capture in each of my pieces and, of course, I want to use these sites to create works. At the same time, as these places are readily localizable and cover a given physical space, they affect liberty of movement, human activity and thought processes in their environment, provoking a civic or militant attitude rather than artistic action. an activist or militant’s legitimacy is based on their conviction that they are speaking “in the name of”, tacitly or expressly mandated by a collective and able to dialogue with other collectives. On the other hand, an artist’s legitimacy is not based on any mandate. The artist speaks solely for himself, alone and only addressing other individuals. But as I am more effective as an artist than as a militant, this situation presents me with a dilemma: how to position myself if I choose to create and propose an artwork which is perfectly acceptable from an artistic point of view, but from an ethical standpoint is utterly untenable in my other roles in society — as a citizen, father, lover, or friend?
To pursue my fascination and assume my responsibility as an artist towards myself and society, I thus have to transform a situation, which calls for a collective action and which is intended for a collective group, into the material that allows for an action of an individual directed towards another individual. At the same time, these locations frighten me in terms of sheer scope and their situation of being, “out of time”, for I am alive and anchored in my time. Given the fragility of my position in relation to these sites, I could only try to create forms if I took the risk of pushing my reflection to the point of rupture, stretching it to the point at which the inherent fragility of my position as an artist becomes the principal material of my project. Thus, I have to inverse the dynamics of the equation and consider the potential tension between my artistic ethics and my civil ethics, not as an obstacle to “doing” but as a productive means. This tension becomes the the very core of the artwork, providing it with form and acting as adistinctive creative material.
The inherent tension of this problematic necessitates analysis and description. The textual restitution becomes an integral part of the work itself.
