Yesterday I went to the re-opening of Istvan Kantor’s storage space and summer gallery. A small group of artists, writers, poets, and other arty type of people sit and relaxed and enjoyed having conversation with Istvan. Istvan Kantor has been practicing art for over decades, many of his past projects were controvercial and banned by some of the nation’s major museums due to his performative acts … now he is a celebrated artist and totally un-banned. His storage was filled with his artifacts … many roughly sprayed with blood-like graffiti, or scull, or the cross … seemed to me that those were created as results of his performances. Made me think of what makes difference between artistic excellence and excellent artists …
Istvan and I share few things.
A video editing suit at the Trinity Square Video about a decade ago … I was editing my first video piece there over night in one unit with the Media 100(before Final Cut Pro and others came out), and he was editing something very sexual and technological next door … too aggressive looking to me and I remember being scared … now we share few other things. The same lawyer and dyed blonde hair and sunglasses … and one more thing! He has a DAICHI Capsule!! Even someone like him is willing to support children in Japan!! so why not should we all?