St Sever De Saintonge, France, April 2023
I don't like the past. I am always working on projects, always thinking about the future. There are painters who don't want to sell their paintings, for example. They don't want to part with them. It would be too great a sacrifice for them. There are others, they sell, but say to themselves, ah, what a pity...
Me, I don't care. Well, I am talking about leaving a work that I have done. I'm not saying I don't care if it sells for a high price...that side is interesting. But I never feel like I'm sacrificing myself for that. I am often asked which of my artworks I prefer. I always answer: the next one. So this notion of sacrifice doesn't really weigh on me.
Creating for yourself, and then putting the object on a shelf and keeping it, is somewhat absurd. A work of art only exists because we see it. Music only exists because it is played. It may exist on the score, or it exists on the canvas, or on the photographic surface, or even on a shelf, but it's the fact that other people share this work by looking at it that really creates the phenomenon, the most intense and important moment.