BIESENBACH: Do you agree, as some of your critics
suggest, that you’ve become too close to the leading powers in the art
world?
VEZZOLI: The only power I have gotten too close to
recently is the power to attract true stars to participate in my
works—and, therefore, the challenge of dealing with them has become, for
me, less engaging. I’ve worked with Lady Gaga, Cate Blanchett, Michelle
Williams, Gore Vidal, and Natalie Portman, but I’m not interested in
spending my time searching for the next big talent. That’s the mission
of an agent.
BIESENBACH: Years ago you were a challenging artist
working in media and performance art. Your most recent show this past
February, at Gagosian Gallery in New York, left many friends and critics
angry and clueless. When you and I began discussing your upcoming
touring retrospective around four years ago, the work felt as far away
from the market and as impossible as one could imagine.
VEZZOLI: Yes, my most recent solo show at Gagosian left
most of the critics angry and clueless—that’s true—but it’s better to be
heavily criticized than to go unnoticed. Religion, motherhood, glamour,
fame: I was going to touch some universal raw nerves with those themes,
and I kind of expected such a reaction.
BIESENBACH: Some critics argued that you had sold out
to [Larry] Gagosian, the art world’s most powerful dealer.
VEZZOLI: Gagosian offered me this very flattering
opportunity; I was aware of the risk, so I tried to conceive a
commercial exhibition that would address the notion of power itself.
Many people failed to see the irony or simply didn’t like it. What can I
say? Of the 30 solo exhibitions I have had over my 12-year career, six
have been commercial; the rest have been in museums and art foundations.
The market has never been on my agenda whatsoever. But I don’t see
anything wrong with artists who pursue the market or collaborate more
with galleries than with museums. After all, some galleries these days
have shows that are academically more credible than those found in some
museums—and budgets that are more generous than those of the church in
the 15th century. I don’t see why artists should shy away from all that.
I’m not so greedy about money, but when it comes to press, I am a true media whore. My work has always involved getting public figures to participate in projects that would challenge audiences and their perception of them. I’ve also tried to get public or private institutions to question their own image: I turned the Guggenheim Museum in New York into a nightclub-theater; the Gagosian Gallery in Rome into a perfume store, and the one in New York into a church; and I turned a section of the 2005 Venice Biennale into a small-time porn movie theater.
