QUARANTINE ART
STRANGE DAYS
- Olivier Hölzl, artist
Who is Olivier Hölzl?
“I observe, I talk, I travel, I write, I listen I interpret and I doubt every day.In the last few years my art became a multi sensory scanning of what is happening around me.I use photography, video, painting, light, installations,…to express myself…I think as artists we live in great times… the visuality is enormous…the inspiration is endless... quantity vs quality…fake news..alternative news…
The attention span of people became very short… actually that’s why people are often not doing what they want to do… to filter what is relevant, people lost this ability… everything seems possible but people lost focus and concentration and they are in a vicious circle of excuses.
Art gives me that focus and concentration… some days you are part of the system and some days you just hate the fuckin system.”
What are your goals and motivations?
“I don’t have specific goals. I am passionate about what I do…I appreciate the moment and seek out of it…the continuous creative reflection of my surroundings keeps me motivated… As I said I observe, I talk, I travel, I write, I listen I interpret and I doubt every day..”
Do you consider yourself an activist?
“I don’t consider myself an activist...artists and activists have passion in common... passion for sth... the artist is passionately creating his own metaphysic world... an activist is on the field...fighting for or against sth... as an artist if you have a critical position about sth you can make other people think, which I appreciate.. in a democracy an activist is taking risks and could even go in jail…today there are definitely artists, where the line between artist and activist is blurred…but in general actually artists are quite conservative…they stick to certain institution codes, dressing codes and they also „optimize“ to the art market mechanism…I was shocked at the beginning of the pandemic when I saw some artists in the social media talking about older people not respecting the rules… strange days!”