Is shit in a can art? In this short interview Gavin Turk talks about how Piero Manzoni and his piece ”Artist’s Shit” from 1961 has inspired him in working with his own art pieces, questioning art and its value.
Manzoni (b.1933 – d. 1963) questioned and satirized the status of the art object as it had been conceived throughout modernism. With other pieces such as ”Artist’s Breath” consisting of red, white and blue balloons infiltrated and attached to a wooden base with the text “Piero Manzoni – Artist’s breath” he used the body as an experimental platform for art objects.
The “Artist’s Shit” pieces consisted of 90 small cans. Each can was priced by the current weight of gold at the time, and the complexity of value has been too much dispute, since opening them would destroy the value itself.
Gavin Turk (b.1967) is a British artist and a member of the renowned Young British Artists movement. Gavin Turk has made pieces consisting of rubbish materials, such as toilet rolls, the core of an apple, and flat rubber tires, carrying on Manzoni’s approach to the art world.
Gavin Turk was interviewed at LARMgalleri by Kasper Bech Dyg.
Camera: Klaus Elmer and Kasper Bech Dyg
Edited by: Kasper Bech Dyg
Produced by: Marc-Christoph Wagner
Copyright: Louisiana Channel, produced by Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, 2014.
Supported by Nordea-fonden
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