The CHELSEA Hotel Manifesto Due to the fact that I have painted monochromes for fifteen years, Due

to the fact that I have created pictorial immaterial states, Due to the fact that I have manipulated the forces of the void, Due to the fact that I have sculpted with fire and with water painted with fire and with water, Due to the fact that I have painted with livin !rushes " in other words, the nude !ody of live models covered with paint# these livin !rushes were under the constant direction of my commands, such as $a little to the ri ht% over to the left now# to the ri ht a ain, etc&&$'y maintainin myself at a specific and o!li atory distance from the surface to !e painted, I am a!le to resolve the pro!lem of detachment& Due to the fact that I have invented the architecture and the ur!anism of air " of course, this new conception transcends the traditional meanin of the terms $architecture and ur!anism$ " my oal from the !e innin was to reunite with the le end of (aradise Lost& This pro)ect was directed toward the ha!ita!le surface of the Earth !y the climati*ation of the reat eo raphical e+panses throu h an a!solute control over the thermal and atmospheric situation in their relation to our morpholo ical and psychical conditions& Due to the fact that I have proposed a new conception of music with my $monotone " silence " symphony$ Due to the fact that I have presented a theatre of the void, amon countless other adventures&&& I would never have !elieved, fifteen years a o at the time of my earliest efforts, that I would suddenly feel the need to e+plain myself " to satisfy the desire to ,now the reason of all that has occurred and the even still more dan erous effect, in other words " the influence my art has had on the youn eneration of artists throu hout the world today& It dismays me to hear that a certain num!er of them thin, that I represent a dan er to the future of art " that I am one of those disastrous and no+ious results of our time that must !e

crushed and destroyed !efore the propa ation of my evil completely ta,es over& I re ret to reveal that this was not my intention% and to happily proclaim to those who evince faith in the multiplicity of new possi!ilities in the path that I prescri!e " Ta,e care- .othin has crystalli*ed as yet% nor can I say what will happen after this& I can only say that today I am no lon er as afraid as I was yesterday in the face of the souvenir of the future& An artist always feels uneasy when called upon to spea, of his own wor,& It should spea, for itself, particularly when it is valid& /hat can I do0 Stop now0 .o, what I call $the indefina!le pictorial sensi!ility$ a!solutely escapes this very personal solution& So&&& I thin, of those words I was once inspired to write& $/ould not the future artist !e he who e+pressed throu h an eternal silence an immense paintin possessin no dimension0$ 1allery" oers, li,e any other pu!lic, would carry this immense paintin in their memory 2a remem!rance which does not derive at all from the past, !ut is solely co ni*ant of the indefina!le sensi!ility of man3& It is necessary to create and recreate a constant physical fluidity in order to receive the race which allows a positive creativity of the the void& 4ust as I created a $monotone " silence " symphony$ in 5678, composed in two parts, " one !road continuous sound followed !y an e9ually !road and e+tended silence, endowed with a limitless dimension " in the same way, I attempt to set !efore you a written paintin of the short history of my art, followed naturally !y a pure and effective silence& My account will close with the creation of a compellin a posteriori silence whose e+istence in our communal space, after all " the space of a sin le !ein " is immune to the destructive 9ualities of physical noise&

Much depends upon the success of my written paintin in its initial technical and audi!le phase& :nly then will the e+traordinary a posteriori silence, in the midst of noise as well as in the cell of physical silence, operate in a new and uni9ue *one of pictorial immaterial sensi!ility& Havin reached today this point in space and ,nowled e, I propose to ird my loins, then to draw !ac, in retrospection of the divin !oard of my evolution& In the manner of an :lympic diver, in the most classic techni9ue of the sport, I must prepare for my leap into the future of today !y prudently movin !ac,ward, without ever losin si ht of the ed e, today consciously attained " the immateriali*ation of art& /hat is the purpose of the retrospective )ourney in time0 Simply, I wish to avoid that you or I fall under the power of that phenomenon of dreams, which descri!es the feelin s and landscapes provo,ed !y our !rus9ue landin in the past& This psycholo ical past is precisely the anti"space that I put !ehind me durin the adventures of these past fifteen years& At present, I am particularly e+cited !y $!ad taste$& I have the deep feelin that there e+ists in the very essence of !ad taste a power capa!le of creatin those thin s situated far !eyond what is traditionally termed $The /or, of Art$& I wish to play with human feelin , with its $mor!idity$ in a cold and ferocious manner& :nly very recently I have !ecome a sort of rave di er of art 2oddly enou h, I am usin the very terms of my enemies3& Some of my latest wor,s have !een coffins and tom!s& Durin the same time I succeeded in paintin with fire, usin particularly powerful and searin as flames, some of them measurin three to four meters hi h& I use these to !athe the surface of the paintin in such a way that it re istered the spontaneous trace of fire& In sum, my oal is twofold# first of all, to re ister the trace of human sentimentality in present"day civili*ation% and then, to re ister the trace of fire, which has en endered this very same civili*ation " that of the fire itself& And all of this !ecause the void has always !een my constant preoccupation% and I !elieve that fires !urn in the heart of the void as well as in the heart of man& All facts that are contradictory are authentic principles of an e+planation of the universe& Truly, fire is one of these

principles, essentially contradictory, one from the other, since it is !oth the sweetness and torture that lies at the heart and ori in of our civili*ation& 'ut what stirs this search for feelin in me throu h the ma,in of super" raves and super coffins0 /hat stirs this search in me for the imprint of fire0 /hy search for the Trace itself0 'ecause every wor, of creation, re ardless of its cosmic place, is the representation of a pure phenomenolo y " all that is phenomena manifests itself& This manifestation is always distinct from form and it is the essence of the Immediate, the Trace of the Immediate& A few months a o, for e+ample, I felt the ur e to re ister the si ns of atmospheric !ehavior !y recordin the instantaneous traces of sprin showers on a canvas, of south winds, and of li htnin 2needless to say, the last"mentioned ended in a catastrophe3& ;or instance, a trip from (aris to .ice mi ht have !een a waste of time had I not spent it profita!ly !y recordin the wind& I placed a canvas, freshly coated with paint, on the roof of my white Citron& As I drove down <oute .ational 8 at 5== ,ilometers an hour, the heat, the cold, the li ht, the wind, and the rain all com!ined to a e my canvas prematurely& At least thirty to forty years were condensed into a sin le day& The only annoyin thin a!out this pro)ect is that for the entire trip I was una!le to separate myself from my paintin & My atmospheric imprints of a few months a o were preceded !y ve etal imprints& After all, my air is to e+tract and o!tain the trace of the immediate from all natural o!)ects, whatever their ori in " !e the circumstance human, animal, ve eta!le, or atmospheric& I would li,e now, with you permission and close attention, to divul e to you possi!ly the most important and certainly the most secret phase of my art& I do not ,now if you are oin to !elieve me " it is canni!alism& After all, is it not prefera!le to !e eaten that to !e !om!ed to death0 I can hardly develop this idea that has tormented me for years& I leave it up to you to draw you own conclusions with re ard to the future of art& If we step !ac, a ain, followin the lines of my evolution, we arrive at the moment when I conceived of paintin with the aid of livin !rushes& That was two years a o& The purpose of this was to !e a!le to attain a defined and constant distance !etween myself and the paintin durin the time of creation&

Many critics claimed that !y this method of paintin I was doin nothin more that recreatin the method that has !een called $action paintin $& 'ut now, I would li,e to ma,e it clear that this endeavor is distinct from $action paintin $ in so far as I am completely detached from all physical wor, durin the time of creation& 4ust to cite one e+ample of the anthropometric errors found within the deformed ideas spread !y the international press " I spea, of that roup of 4apanese painters who with reat refinement used my method in a stran e way& In fact, these painters actually transformed themselves into livin !rushes& 'y divin themselves in color and then rollin on their canvases, they !ecame representative of ultra"action"painters(ersonally, I would never attempt to smear paint over my !ody and thus to !ecome a livin !rush% to the contrary, I would rather put on my tu+edo and don white loves& It would never cross my mind to soil my hands with paint& Detached and distant, the wor, of art must !e completed under my eyes and under my command& As the wor, !e ins its completion, I stand there " present at the ceremony, immaculate, calm, rela+ed, perfectly aware of what is ta,in place and ready to receive the art !ein !orn into the tan i!le world& /hat directed me towards anthropometry0 The answer can !e !ound in the wor, that I ma,e durin the years 56>? to 56>8 while I too, part in the iant adventure, the creation of pictorial immaterial sensi!ility& I had )ust removed from my studio all earlier wor,s& The result " an empty studio& All that I could physically do was to remain in my empty studio and the pictorial immaterial states of creation marvelously unfolded& However, little !y little, I !ecame mistrustful of myself, !ut never of the immaterial& ;rom that moment, followin the e+ample of all painters, I hired models& 'ut unli,e the other, I merely wanted to wor, in their company rather than have them pose for me& I had !een spendin too much time alone in the empty studio% I no lon er wanted to remain alone with the marvelous !lue void which was in the process of openin & Thou h seemin ly stran e, remem!er that I was perfectly aware of the fact that I e+perienced none of that verti o, felt

!y all my predecessors, when they found themselves face to face with the a!solute void that is, 9uite naturally, true pictorial space& 'ut how lon could my security in this awareness endure0 @ears a o, the artist went directly to his su!)ect, wor,ed outdoors in the country, had his feet firmly planted on the round " it was healthy& Today, easel"painters have !ecome academics and have reached the point of shuttin themselves in their studios in order to confront the terrifyin mirrors of their canvases& .ow the reason I was pushed to use nude models is all !ut evident# it was a way of preventin the dan er of secludin myself in the overly spiritual spheres of creation, thus !rea,in with the most !asic common sense repeatedly affirmed !y our incarnate condition& The shape of the !ody, its lines, its stran e colors hoverin !etween life and death, hold no interest for me& :nly the essential, pure affective climate of the flesh is valid& Havin re)ected nothin ness, I discovered the void& The meanin of the immaterial pictorial *ones, e+tracted from the depth of the void which !y that time was of a very material order& ;indin it unaccepta!le to sell these immaterial *ones for money, I insisted in e+chan e for the hi hest 9uality of the immaterial, the hi hest 9uality of material payment " a !ar of pure old& Incredi!le as it may seem, I have actually sold a num!er of these pictorial immaterial states& So much could !e said a!out my adventure in the immaterial and the void that the result would !e an overly e+tended pause while steeped in the present ela!oration of a written paintin & (aintin no lon er appeared to me to !e functionally related to the a*e, since durin the !lue monochrome period of 56>8 I !ecame aware of what I called the pictorial sensi!ility& This pictorial sensi!ility e+ists !eyond our !ein and yet !elon s in our sphere& /e hold no ri ht of possession over life itself& It is only !y the intermediary of our ta,in possession of sensi!ility that we are a!le to purchase life& Sensi!ility ena!les us to pursue life to the level of its !ase material manifestations, in the e+chan e and !arter that are the universe of space, the

immense totality of nature& Ima ination is the vehicle of sensi!ilityTransported !y 2effective3 ima ination we attain life, that very life which is a!solute art itself& A!solute art, what mortal men call with a sensation of verti o the summum of art, materiali*es instantaneously& It ma,es its appearance in the tan i!le world, even as I remain at a eometrically fi+ed point, in the wa,e of e+traordinary volumetric displacements with a static and verti inous speed& The e+planation of the conditions that led me to pictorial sensi!ility, is to !e found in the intrinsic power of the monochromes of my !lue period of 56>8& This period of !lue monochromes was the fruit of my 9uest for the indefina!le in paintin which Delacroi+ the master could already intimate in his time& ;rom 56>? to 567?, my monochrome e+periments, tried with various other colors than !lue, never allowed me to lose si ht of the fundamental truth of our time " namely that form, henceforth, would no lon er !e a simple linear value, !ut rather a value of impre nation& :nce, in 567?, while still an adolescent, I was to si n my name on the other side of the s,y durin a fantastic $realistico"ima inary$ )ourney& That day, as I lay stretched upon the !each of .ice, I !e an to feel hatred for !irds which flew !ac, and forth across my !lue, cloudless s,y, !ecause they tried to !ore holes in my reatest and most !eautiful wor,& 'irds must !e eliminated& Thus, we humans will have ac9uired the ri ht to evolve in full li!erty without any physical and spiritual constraint& .either missiles nor roc,ets nor sputni,s will render man the $con9uistador$ of space& Those means derive only from the phantom of todayAs scientists who still live in the romantic and sentimental spirit of the BIB century& Man will only !e a!le to ta,e possession of space throu h the terrifyin forces, the ones imprinted with peace and sensi!ility&

He will !e a!le to con9uer space " truly his reatest desire " only after havin reali*ed the impre nation of space !y his own sensi!ility& His sensi!ility can even read into the memory of nature, !e it of the past, of the present, and of the futureIt is our true e+tra"dimensional capacity for actionIf proofs, precedents or predecessors are needed, let me then cite Dante, who in the Divine Comedy, descri!ed with a!solute precision what no traveler of his time could reasona!ly have discovered, the invisi!le constellation of the .orthern Hemisphere ,nown as the Southern Cross% 4onathan Swift, in his Coya e to Laputa, ave the distances and periods of rotation of two satellites of Mars thou h they were un,nown at the time% /hen American astronomer, Asoph Hall, discovered them in 5D88, he reali*ed that his measurements were the same as those of Swift& Sei*ed !y panic, he named them (ho!os and Deimos, ;ear and Terror- /ith these two words " ;ear and Terror " I find myself !efore you in the year 567?, ready to dive into the void& Lon Live the Immaterial And now, Than, you for your ,ind attention&