Back beginningsthe story of his youth, the novelist signs the fourth part of his autobiography, which began in 2001 with brimstone; Catherine M.’s sex life. Dive into the artistic avant-garde of the 1960s.
In beginnings, the fourth part of the autobiographical enterprise begun Katherine M.’s Sex LifeKatherine Millett describes her “entry into life,” the period when a person is still close to childhood without fully entering professional life. With a stern pen, he recounts the birth of modern art, in which he participated, and more precisely, conceptual art, asking questions about what could be done after Dada and Surrealism. Moving from Colomb and Asnieres to Saint-Germain-des-Prés, New York and Venice, through this self-portrait of an art critic, he signs a portrait of a generation that made freedom its watchword.
Miss Figaro.– What was the heart for you? beginnings ?
Catherine Millett. – We all remember childhood as a long time, because our perception of time is different, because it is a period that is fed by the dreams that come from our readings and what we imagine its future. Once in the bath of his professional life, we consider it a time to build and organize: will I get married, have children, etc.? Between the two we have this brief moment where we are completely helpless. I didn’t have knowledge, I didn’t study, I didn’t have money, I entered into an active life, and it was a puzzle for me that I tried to solve. Find out with this book: how do you manage when you have so much? run out of resources and you’re left with the infinity of the world.
In the video, a literary meeting between Chanel and Blanche Anne Berest
The book is also the story of the birth of the community, modern art…
I started my professional life when the last avant-gardes that were to give birth to modern art were being created. Its advocates acted as pioneers. I think of those who went out into the desert to dig holes and move stones… without questioning what would become of it under the influence of media coverage and the funding of this market. At that time, the approach of many was to bypass and subvert the art market, which, moreover, had nothing to do with what it is today. Merchants looked like commercial travelers. So I’m reminded of John Gibson, who specialized in promoting off-the-wall and out-of-class unclassifiable works by Christo or Dennis Oppenheim, and who walked around with a briefcase containing photographs and drawings of projects for which he had negotiated next to nothing. .
I started my professional life when the last avant-gardes were taking place, which were to give birth to modern art.
Catherine Millett
It was an extraordinary space of freedom.
Yes, I’ve chosen examples that are a little overwhelming, grandiose, or, on the contrary, mocking, like when Christian Boltanski mailed envelopes with locks of hair cut off to, I don’t know who. The line between art and life was porous. With these small objects, the artists gave themselves great power and were able to deeply move their audience. It felt like anything was possible. Microscopically, we had Boltanski, and macroscopically, the land-art artists I mentioned earlier, who literally moved mountains. You could even destroy the museum for the price of the museum curator’s place, but at least you could do it. And not so much a provocation as a game, the political protest movements of those years should not be confused with modern art. Of course, if you asked the artists, they were anti-capitalist, against the Vietnam war, etc., but the spirit and the works were not politicized. Above all, freedom was taken away.
Freedom was also sexual. What do you mean by talking about sexual pleasure as the “amniotic fluid” in the “matrix” that this world has created for you?
I made an observation that when I was more relaxed in this environment, when I made friends there, it was mostly through sex. I was in my twenties when I started publishing and exploring galleries, and I definitely had the charm of a very young woman who was passionate about what she was being shown. What I might call my sexual community, consisting of people I saw for work but also for love, really played the role of a matrix that reassured the somewhat lost young woman that I didn’t have all the codes. , I don’t know how I am. act alone for the basic steps of daily life. I was clumsy and filled my shame with sexual passivity. It was my gateway to others and I maintained good relations with many of my former colleagues. Later, everything developed. it’s a team effort, insideArtPress specifically, and without having more sex. – who helped me?
Do you think we might look at these types of relationships differently in the MeToo era?
Not because we’re obviously passive, that we don’t have power… In general, this book wants to evoke the ease with which we’ve experienced sexuality. I’m not saying that there were no accidents, I talked about it days of suffering. But there was a lightness of thought and practice that was lost. I wanted this book to testify to the younger generations, to tell them that there are other ways of seeing and perceiving things. Women don’t have to be the victims… For a while there was a wind of freedom that ended with the advent and decline of AIDS. It was a time when all you had to do to get a job was to answer an ad, and if you lost it, I found another one that allowed you to rent a studio in the heart of Saint-Germain-des-Prés without any problems. , something unimaginable today. We always managed to get by, and it opened up an access to body and mind that was hard to imagine in today’s economic climate.
Writing is a way to keep dreaming, if only instead of dreaming about the future, I dream about the past
Catherine Millett
“A story is a form of a dream, and even when it’s autobiographical, it belongs more to the genre of a novel than to transcribing reality like a police report,” you write.
I published sex life At 51, slightly older than average. I knew as I still note beginnings, that I have been a big dreamer for childhood, adolescence and most of my life. My life was not unpleasant, but I dreamed of other lives… But there comes a time when your remaining time is shortened, and when you can no longer build the dreams you live in. Imagine changing, living with someone else. , having other activities, living in another country. For me, the act of writing is a way of reversing the function of the dream, which instead of projecting me into a shorter future, pushes me back and forces me to rethink my life. I don’t want to erase the difficulties I went through. dreaming is not idealization, but the word romance is appropriate because in reality I am romanticizing this life. Writing is a way to keep dreaming, only instead of dreaming about the future, I dream about the past.
beginningsBy Catherine Millet, Editions Flammarion, 250 p., €20.
Source: Le Figaro
