Why do I write about my work ? (2014)

– I write because I am DOING ARTWORK. The basis of my “Artist-Writing” is to do my artwork and this gives me the competence to write. To write is – to me – a simple and engaging gesture.

– I write because I can write – just as everybody can – I want to write in a egalitarian way – this means: I write with my words!

– I write – just as anyone can – because writing is an egalitarian way to EXPRESS, TELL OR COMMUNICATE to the other, to my mother, to the art historian or to whoever asks me a question concerning my work and what it’s about.

– I write because I want to FIX things. In order to be committed to a form, to write things down helps me to be truthful to it, because once written down things are no longer hazardous or arbitrary, but set and fixed.

– I write because I want to CLARIFY things, I want to clarify things – first for myself. Doing “Artist-Writings” helps me work out more precisely what I want or wanted to do.

– I write because I know what I am doing, why I am doing it and I know how I am doing it, so it is EASY TO WRITE DOWN, it’s an engagement, it’s a commitment, it’s a statement, it’s a judgement, it’s something definite and it’s something absolute.

– I write because art is ASSERTION of form, to me, this is the essential. Therefore to write is also an assertion, and writing – to me as the artist – is always a tool to reinforce my assertion of the form – in writing it down. Writing is not explanation, justification or argumentation.

– I write because I want to to INSIST WITH WHAT IS ESSENTIAL to me. To write helps me decide and insist on what really counts for me. To write helps me develop this essential, to confront it – when it is sent to someone or published somewhere – and to keep it in a dynamic, as something active.

– I write because I need to establish my OWN TERMS: in my efforts to establish a new term of art, old terms or terms of others can’t be used. With “Artist-Writing” I create – and stay faithful to – my own terms in art.

– Finally I do “Artist-Writings” in order to give my own TESTIMONY. In the blizzard of critics, information, meanings and opinions about my work, my artist-testimony is there – also.

Thomas Hirschhorn, 2014