> contents / Gaetane Michaux - U.S.A. - Belgium / interview by Sztuka Fabryka (2008) /

> Sztuka Fabryka: "If you would describe your work how would you describe it?"

Gaetane Michaux:
First you document street art on photographs and make collages of it, later on you work with filmposters. Do you document, are you a collage artist, a photographer, or maybe an intermedia artist.
I don't really think or work in those terms. I'm sure my backgrounds in sculpture and architecture have had an effect on what I produce and how I produce it, but I never really stop to think about classifications.

> Sztuka Fabryka: "Can you tell something more about your backgrounds? I know you work as an architect in New-York, but did not know you are a sculpture. How these two backgrounds do effects your current work."

Gaetane Michaux:
My work (architecture) definitely affects my art. For example, with 11 Spring Street, I really wanted to physically connect with the building, to go below the surface and work with it as opposed to on it. One of my favorite artists is Gordon Matta Clarke, and his work influenced me both in my work and with my art. As you know, he is famous for his building cuts, and to me his work bridged art and architecture in a way that really speaks to me.

> Sztuka Fabryka: "What is the history behind your work how did puzzles become a returning item in your work?"

Gaetane Michaux:
I have been mixing/collaging images for some time. One day, making jigsaw puzzles with my little niece opened my eyes to the unexpected mix of images that results when you don't connect the pieces correctly. Appropriating this phenomenon, I took two different puzzles and mixed them together. Then I began to create my own images, using the puzzle as a platform or chassis to support my method of mixing.
What I love about the puzzles is that you can take them apart and put them back together again. The image is something one discovers through its assembly and not necessarily from typical visual cues between the pieces. The final image should be a surprise for the person who puts it together, since the physical pieces fit together, but not the images on them.

> Sztuka Fabryka: "What are these puzzle pieces for you? If you frame them you have a single art piece which looks as a puzzle. If you put the puzzle on the table you have a sculpture. If you keep them in the box you have a multiple."

Gaetane Michaux:
PUZZLE SENTIMENT
I love that sentiment. That's a great way to put it, no one has ever said that before! I don't see my puzzles as art; I see them as objects for play. In a way, that relates to graphic design, architecture and visual arts all at once. I studied visual arts before going to school for sculpture and then architecture, so first I learned how to make an image, then I learned how to make something in 3d - the problem for me was that sculpture seemed empty. It had no real function other than to look cool. Architecture can go beyond that. I see architecture as an inhabitable work of art. It is alive, like my puzzles.
A puzzle accomplishes a lot of the things I strive for in architecture. It is a live sculpture. It's an image that you must work to put together. When it's done, the interaction is over, and it's true that if you frame it at this point and put it on the wall, it's dead. But when you take it apart again, it's full of potential and spark. It's ready to be alive and interacted with again.

> Sztuka Fabryka: "Who or what influences you?"

Gaetane Michaux:
Everyday life influences me. The city, people, weirdness inside people, magazines and books, others' art work; all these things insert themselves inside my head and incubate there. One morning I will wake up and a new image/project is in my head, demanding to be let out.

> Sztuka Fabryka: "Which art movements does influence you?"

Gaetane Michaux:
INFLUENCES
Well, I love street art because it's a living part of everyday life in the city. I am moved by things that are alive, and to me, street art is alive because it reflects raw energy and emotion, but also because it is exposed to the elements and allowed to decay over time. Street art is not in a museum to be preserved like a mummy. It is beautiful in that it lives and dies, it has a full life cycle and always changes, sometimes from one day to the next.

> Sztuka Fabryka: "You are also interested in Fluxus. What does interest you in this, sad but true, almost unknown art movement?"

Gaetane Michaux:
FLUXUS
Interactive?
When I studied sculpture I came across the Fluxus movement. I loved the concept of intermedia, and I love the mixing of disciplines, especially since I couldn't fit myself into one category. Crossing boundaries between sculpture/graphic design/architecture is something I try to do in both my work and my art, and at the time it was very seductive and inspiring to learn about this small movement whose ideas were so encompassing.