Quelle beauté, quel calme, j'ai vu les nuages et, au loin, leurs ombres légères...

QUELLE BEAUTÉ, QUEL CALME, J’AI VU LES NUAGES ET, AU LOIN, LEURS OMBRES LÉGÈRES… What beauty, what calm, I have seen the clouds and, far away, their faint shadows...

This is the found title of this particular publication, edited by myself with the artists at HISK [Higher Institute for Fine Arts] in Ghent, Belgium, on the kind invitation of Elena Sorokina (curator 2017-2018). Just like GAGARIN – the global magazine I published between 2000 and 2016 comprising a series of 33 issues documenting the early part of this century through artists’ writings – this new publication lends the platform exclusively to the artists. And like GAGARIN, QUELLE BEAUTÉ, QUEL CALME, J’AI VU LES NUAGES ET, AU LOIN, LEURS OMBRES LÉGÈRES takes a specific editorial stance that happens to coincide with a quote from John Baldessari: “Talking about art simply is not art. Talk can be art, but then it is not talking about art.” These are the very last words of Baldessari’s elaborate answer to question number 110: “What are the dangers of too much verbalization about art? What does ‘too much’ mean? What kind of people fear verbalization? Can a person who wants to appreciate works of art entirely escape verbalization?” The questions for the interview, prepared by Meg Cranston, were taken from Lester D. Longman’s book 911 Questions on Art (William C. Brown Publishers, Dubuque, Iowa, 1950). Exactly which of those 911 questions were to be asked was determined by a throw of the dice. The full interview was published in the Journal of Contemporary Art, Volume 2, #2, Fall/Winter 1989.

Wilfried Huet

Published in conjunction with the exhibition “Show me tomorrow, we will go there”, HISK laureates 2018, from 23 November till 16 December, 2018.

€ 25 (excl. shipping)

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