O Carvalho!

Há alguns anos atrás vi na oca em SP uma retrospectiva da TATE MODERN. Foi a primeira vez que a famosa galeria mostrou seu acervo em um local que não a própria TATE. E estavam todos lá: o impressionante “A Bigger Splash” de David Hockney, os impagáveis Gilbert and George, o descoladinho Damien Hirst e gerações de artistas modernos que de alguma forma marcaram a arte nas últimas décadas. Entretanto nada, mas realmente nada do que vi nesta exposição se comparou ao impacto estúpido e delirante de ver um copo com 3/4 de água sob uma base de vidro fixada em uma parede e a uma altura que não se podia alcançar. Foi uma das coisas mais ridículas que já vi em uma galeria de arte e olha que já vi coisas absurdamente ridículas em galerias de arte. Porém, An Oak Tree de Michael Craig-Martin foi a mais retarda de todas e foi justamente pelo elevado grau de demência da obra que fiquei total e apaixonadamente fascinado. Aquilo era praticamente um insulto. Então pensei: este cara é punk pra caralho! Ele põe um copo d’água na parede e chama de “Um Carvalho”!!!!!!! Que idiota e que incrível! A dualidade em mim era tão brutal que levei quatro anos para falar no assunto e nem sei se amadureci a idéia ainda… Bom, depois do impacto inicial percebi logo abaixo do copo, há uns dois metros e um pouco a direita, uma folha de papel. Me aproximei e vi que ali havia uma entrevista com o artista… E este é sem dúvida um dos textos mais brilhantes que a arte moderna já presenciou. Sempre detestei obras que necessitam de legenda… mas esta precisava e muito, ou melhor a legenda era mais arte que a própria obra ou melhor ela era parte dela… Hilário, sarcasmo de altíssima qualidade…… Tirem suas próprias conclusões! E jamais diga “desta água não beberei!”
obs: Me desculpem pelo tamanho do texto abaixo. Mas vale a pena!
Michael Craig-Martin. An oak tree, 1973.
In a room at Tate Modern there is a three-quarter full glass of water on a high shelf. It is a work by Michael Craig-Martin called An oak tree, 1973. Beside it there is the following text:
Q. To begin with, could you describe this work?
A. Yes, of course. What I’ve done is change a glass of water into a full-grown oak tree without altering the accidents of the glass of water.
Q. The accidents?
A. Yes. The colour, feel, weight, size …
Q. Do you mean that the glass of water is a symbol of an oak tree?
A. No. It’s not a symbol. I’ve changed the physical substance of the glass of water into that of an oak tree.
Q. It looks like a glass of water.
A. Of course it does. I didn’t change its appearance. But it’s not a glass of water, it’s an oak tree.
Q. Can you prove what you’ve claimed to have done?
A. Well, yes and no. I claim to have maintained the physical form of the glass of water and, as you can see, I have. However, as one normally looks for evidence of physical change in terms of altered form, no such proof exists.
Q. Haven’t you simply called this glass of water an oak tree?
A. Absolutely not. It is not a glass of water anymore. I have changed its actual substance. It would no longer be accurate to call it a glass of water. One could call it anything one wished but that would not alter the fact that it is an oak tree.
Q. Isn’t this just a case of the emperor’s new clothes?
A. No. With the emperor’s new clothes people claimed to see something that wasn’t there because they felt they should. I would be very surprised if anyone told me they saw an oak tree.
Q. Was it difficult to effect the change?
A. No effort at all. But it took me years of work before I realised I could do it.
Q. When precisely did the glass of water become an oak tree?
A. When I put the water in the glass.
Q. Does this happen every time you fill a glass with water?
A. No, of course not. Only when I intend to change it into an oak tree.
Q. Then intention causes the change?
A. I would say it precipitates the change.
Q. You don’t know how you do it?
A. It contradicts what I feel I know about cause and effect.
Q. It seems to me that you are claiming to have worked a miracle. Isn’t that the case?
A. I’m flattered that you think so.
Q. But aren’t you the only person who can do something like this?
A. How could I know?
Q. Could you teach others to do it?
A. No, it’s not something one can teach.
Q. Do you consider that changing the glass of water into an oak tree constitutes an art work?
A. Yes.
Q. What precisely is the art work? The glass of water?
A. There is no glass of water anymore.
Q. The process of change?
A. There is no process involved in the change.
Q. The oak tree?
A. Yes. The oak tree.
Q. But the oak tree only exists in the mind.
A. No. The actual oak tree is physically present but in the form of the glass of water. As the glass of water was a particular glass of water, the oak tree is also a particular oak tree. To conceive the category ‘oak tree’ or to picture a particular oak tree is not to understand and experience what appears to be a glass of water as an oak tree. Just as it is imperceivable it also inconceivable.
Q. Did the particular oak tree exist somewhere else before it took the form of a glass of water?
A. No. This particular oak tree did not exist previously. I should also point out that it does not and will not ever have any other form than that of a glass of water.
Q. How long will it continue to be an oak tree?
A. Until I change it.
As I understand it, this text is not in itself the work of art, so I am at liberty to reproduce it here.














