communication problem

Opening speech crox 53. The team (actually Hans,
Kristel and Frank) already decided (see working meeting 8 August 1995) to give
the opening speeches a more experimental format. For crox 53 (Gosbert Adler, October
1996) Hans van Heirseele manufactures a speech consisting of a tape recording
and two superposed layers of text. The tape (a) is recorded in the atelier in
the garden where a grand piano was available (the instrument was later moved to
the loft of Michaël Borremans): prepared piano/ wooden objects on strings
inside piano. A part of the spoken text also ends up on tape (b). The body of
the oration properly is given by Hans van Heirseele (c). The speech: (a)/ (c) Do
we have a communication problem? We have a huge communication problem. It is
truly devastating. A communication problem the size of an all but sunken  Titanic is what the contemporary art scene has
to struggle with. This even doesn’t come as a surprise. Critics and
commentators excel in intellectualistic pep talk. One should only read the
brochures of Chambres d'Amis or the catalogues of Jan Vercruysse, or look at
what Cassiman says about De Cordier. Farmers’ bollocks, dude, sheer pep talk. Is
it reasonable to talk about ‘an alternative to save the autonomy of the
individual' if one only has to discuss a legume? / (a)/ (c) Re the core of the
problem: contemporary art, if it still deserves that name, has been
communicating ardently but no one has been notified. / (a)/ (c) Could it be
that a difference in levels is the cause? It could be. It’s imaginable. Levels
differ. Some things are high, because they are on a height, some things are low, because they are situated
lowly, and to bridge the difference one has to clamber for a day, at least, even
a week doesn’t suffice. A hearty discussion? Is that what they want? A hearty
conversation about hearty subjects? But that is not the heart of the matter;
about important issues one has to communicate in important ways. Minor issues
are dismissed as anecdotic./
(b) there are so many layers hidden beneath the stylistically often remarkable
interestingness of contemporary art objects / who could be capable to keep
track of all this/ the insider/ the insider/ could the insider be capable/ to/ without mental acrobatics/ if you please/ because
what are we talking about/ would only the insider know what they are talking
about/ is he she able to extract from the howling of meanings one meaning that
makes a difference / we want to know/ someone will tell us what it means/ (a)/
(c) To comprehend is not necessarily equal to the ability to speak. On
principle, it isn’t really necessary to have a grasp of what one is speaking
about. Speaking about things one has none or little understanding of obviously
requires / (a)/ (c) Another issue: great artist number whatever is being taxed
on his market value in the first place. Another issue: great artist number
so-and-so is being taxed on his market value in the first place. Another issue:
great artist number whatever is in the first place. With a lot of pomp and
circumstance. The effort accomplished is historical. And the average Belgian is
always in for market value; at least if that value isn’t as criminally and megalomaniacally
out of proportion that it seems to be exempt from all even remotely accepted standards of
correlation to the effort made. / (a)/ (c) and the consequences, they were
utterly disregarded/ (a)/ (c) People will suggest that an artist relies on a
small circle of intimates. What we are talking about, between the lines, needs
no comment. / (a)/ (c) Offside! They point the finger at the audience./ (a)/
(c) Or should we say that this lack of communication is a matter of all times?
The audience, the public, das Publicum, five cow’s arses and a dog, that’s about the
definite summum./ (a)/ (c) It is said that the audience doesn’t understand what
the artist is talking about. What if the audience knows exactly what the artist
is talking about? There is the insiders, and there is the audience, and there
is the cocoon of the art scene. What if the audience suddenly knows what the
artist is talking about?/ (a)/ (c) Or, is the audience still under the spell of
the 4th etude of Chopin. Or episode 4000 of/ (a)/ (c) Obviously, one could as
well hold that the faulty communication originates more deeply. In my opinion, there is
nothing in those depths./ (a)/ (c) There is a ballroom full of niceties and if
you’re finished marvelling at those / (b) in that respect there are the things
that be/ and there are the things that aren’t/ so to speak/ /indeed, why not to
say so / / there are the things that be / and there are the things that aren’t /
they have always been/ and they have always been not/ /they have been/ and they
have been not/ /being an artist concerns the re-realisation of those things,/ things
that always have been/ things that never were / (a)/ (c) and an answer that
moreover ought to ought to be right.