Gottfried Hennwein - An Interview - On His Collaboration With Musician Marilyn Manson

In this interview with writer Michal Szyksznian, Helnwein talks about the freedom of art, how at a young age he became involved with the performance of numerous Aktions, and how his work with musician Marilyn Manson contributed to the album "The Golden Age of Grotesque" .

MS: Some people consider an artist as someone who should be above ideology, above politics or even above morals. But art is often a social commentary or political statement. Should art be about politics or morals? Or should it be the art for art's sake?

GH: Too many people have already racked their brains over the question what art should or should not do. Within living memory, self-appointed "authorities" and "experts" have always tried to define, regulate, control and organize art and to set goals, rules and limits for artists. Huge libraries have been wasted with the junk of the theoreticians, critics, and moralists. But art and artists do not need that crap, nor do people.

"There is no need in art because art is free", Wassily Kandinsky said. Every artist has to make his lone decisions - free-climbing without safety rope and with a good chance of slipping and falling, sometimes deep. Real art will always challenge the society the artist lives in to some degree, and at times it will upset some people.

MS: You started your artistic adventure as an Actionist. What is special about making a happening? And what is your favorite Aktion you've initiated?

GH: At the age of 18 I finally realized that I was here to be an artist, and there was no way for me to escape that. As a kid I always despised the idea of being a painter. I had this concept of boring old guys with bears and berets standing in front of an easel and painting abstract canvases all day long. Being a member of the Rolling Stones appeared to me the ideal form of existence as an artist. But that was unrealistic. So I started little paintings and drawings of wounded and banded children with cheap watercolor paints, colored pencils and inks, and at the same time I began my actions with children in public spaces.

My first performance was with Sandra (6 years old). She was considered a problem child by her parents, and I think her mother had a hard time coping with Sandra's wicked sense of humor. For example, one time, as protest for the punishment of being locked in her room, she cut up all her mothers clothes into tiny little pieces, arranged them in a neat pile in the middle of the room and called her mum with the innocent voice of an angel. Another time she set fire to her parent's apartment. She was one tough and mean little lady, but I liked her instantly. She had the pride of a Latino street gang leader. When she looked at you, her piercing little eyes had a very clear message: "do not mess with me".

I asked Sandra if she would like to participate in some art performances with me. "What's in it for me?" she replied with the cool of a Yakuza negotiating business. "What do you want?", I asked her. "A bicycle" she said. So we had a deal. I banded her and she would stand or lie on the street or sidewalk at different locations in Vienna, in the stream of irritated pedestrians. Sometimes she would walk slowly like a sleepwalker and bump into people. She took these actions serious and was very dedicated but always with a cool head - no emotions involved. I also did a series of photographs with bandages, strings and surgical instruments and I was careful not to hurt her, but she was acting with a professional curiosity and encouraged me to try more extreme distortions of her face.

Sandra was my first model and she appeared in photographs, short-films and my early watercolors of the "Beautiful Victim" series. I had great respect for her. We never talked much, but there was always an almost telepathic communication and understanding. I wish collaborations with grown-ups would be that easy.

MS: You and Manson did a series of magnificent works for "The Golden Age of Grotesque" album. I know that there were some problems with the album cover.

GH: Manson is an exceptional, creative being. We did some experimental stuff together in the last few years. It was exciting and inspirational for both of us. From a series of performance pieces we chose the images of Manson as a black and as a white Mickey. I admit they were not the type of Mickeys a kid wants to see when it wakes up in the night. We thought they were perfect for the cover of the "Golden Age of Grotesque" album, but the people from the record company freaked out. Only over their dead body, you know? So Manson decided to use another image from the same series which I also like a lot: a blurred apparition - red eyes and metal teeth.

MS: Art and entertainment: are they in opposition to each other? Is there a line that connects them? The split between "high" and "low" art seems to be disappearing these days ...

GH: "High" and "low" are completely arbitrary and artificial distinctions that some bloated assholes invented to make life more complicated. Comics are considered "low", but when Roy Lichtensein comes and picks out one panel of that comic, projects and paintings it on a canvas then it's suddenly "high" art? Give me a break. The only thing that I care about in art is quality, intensity. Is a work of art capable of touching and moving me? Does it cause an emotional impact on me? Does it startle, surprise, upset, excite me? Does it make me think? Does it inspire me? Does it stimulate my imagination? Does it change the way I view the world to some degree?

MS: What artists are your biggest inspiration?

GH: Francisco de Goya, Pieter Breughel, Matthias Gruenewald, Carl Barks, Shakespeare, Fernando Pesoa, Francis Bacon, Manson, Captain Beefheart, Caravaggio, Jimi Hendrix, Kafka, Franz Xaver Messerschmidt, Caspar David Friedrich, Rembrandt, Leonardo Da Vinci, Walt Disney, Bukowski, EAPoe, ETA Hoffmann, Rolling Stones, Max Beckmann, David Lynch, Blind Willie McTell, Hans Christian Anderson, Goethe, Bach, Norman Rockwell, Robert Crumb, Deix, Wilhelm Busch, Burroughs, HCArtmann, Jack White, Marlene Dietrich, Hieronymus Bosch, Tolstoi, Alexandre Dumas, Stendhal, Donald Duck, Christoph Ransmeyer, Elfriede Jelinek, Mozart, Artaud.

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