The Dano-Icelandic Olafur Eliasson invites through his works to think about living together, climate change, and, more broadly, the Anthropocene ( Era of the human ).
While a retrospective dedicated to him opens at the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, he gave an interview to the Spanish daily El Pais in which he does not hesitate to tackle a sacred monster: Picasso.
Olafur Eliasson, who believes that the author of his work presented in Bilbao is at the same time the public, the museum, and himself, believes that it is high time to question the figure of the great master. I think it is necessary to rethink not only the idea we have of the author but also of authority. It is also required to adopt a more feminist point of view because patriarchy is deeply rooted, he explains.
Picasso abused women like Harvey Weinstein of his time, but whose behavior was then considered acceptable
You know this very well in Spain, the country of Picasso, a man who abused women. Like a Harvey Weinstein of his time, but whose behavior was then considered acceptable, continues the artist, making the analogy between the painter and the Hollywood producer accused of rape and sexual assault.
It is not the first time that Pablo Picasso behavior with women has been questioned. Sophie Chauveau, the author of a biography of the painter in two volumes, recently highlighted the perversity of Picasso. I read what the mistresses, the wives, the children left. In the early 1950s, for example, he confiscated their passports from two little Americans who came to see him. He lavishes them treats - what a sordid euphemism - for two days before returning their papers to them, she explained in an interview granted in 2018 to Le Figaro.
He hated the women he had to the point of beating them and locking them up. Marie-Thérèse used the word rape. Françoise had a cheek pierced by a lit Gauloise cigaret, and let's not talk about the sadomasochist tragedy with Dora Maar. Marie-Thérèse and Jacqueline committed suicide. Maya, one of her daughters, and Marina, one of her granddaughters, said some things about their experienced discomfort, kids continued the biographer.
Far from wondering about the sole issue of gender relations, Olafur Eliasson, who had presented an ecological and temporary installation in 2015 on the sidelines of COP21 , does not evade the environmental impact of his activity. I think we have to distinguish between the world of culture and the culture market. I know that art fairs are not environmentally friendly, but the culture is. Because it is local, it is not a consumerist, and it is based on the inclusion and listening, says the artist.
Le Figaro
