Nicholas Stronczyk

Actual work: from 2005 High Table Action: an intervention in public space

SHE: Nicholas, is this your bio for the new SSRU webseite?

HE: Yes, when I read a text, I want to get a sense of the human being behind the text. This interview form I think is more appropriate to achieve this.

SHE: But why can't you do it in a common way?

HE: I wonder....what is it you want to get when you read a short bio?

SHE: I want in an brief overview who that person is and what this person is doing.

HE: We still can talk about what I'm doing and trying to figure out who I am. It's just a different form. I think we have the opportunity to write a text the way we prefer. The reader than is able to see different forms of writing and maybe that chosen form is saying a lot more about the writer than what he or she is saying in the text.

SHE: I get the point. Are you always doing things the way you want to or have to do it?

HE: I try to. But I don' mean it in an egoistic way. I'm responsible for what I say and how I say it. I have to shape it.

SHE: Your argument sounds as if you see this written form as creative process or an artwork.

HE: I'm not calling it art but it is a process that can be shaped. And who if not us is shaping it? In this sense I agree with Joseph Beuys and his notion Expanded Conception of art. Human beings are creative beings and therefore they are able and responsible to shape themselves and the world.

SHE: Do you really believe: Every human being is an artist?

HE: Sure.

SHE: But how can you be sure?

HE: Experience and Research. I did some practise based research on Joseph Beuys and his ideas during my time as a PhD student.Parallel to the research on Beuys I came to know Hannah Arendt and Karl Jaspers, two German Philosophers of the last century. Both their theories I could integrate in my research. Namely Hannah Arendts understanding of Action and Karl Jaspers understanding of Communication. Through doing that it became clear to me, that the three of them had a similar understanding of a human being but also that humans due to their ability to think and are creative beings able to shape themselves and the world around them.

SHE: You did connect theories of Joseph Beuys, Karl Jaspers and Hannah Arendt. What was the result?

HE: The result is an action in public. I'm not a theorist as I said already. I do practise, based on different theories and thoughts which I connect to my own artist theory. During the research I tried out different methods of working in public. The actual work titled High Table combines all thoughts, theories and ideas I was researching. It's a result of the question How should I act? which sounds very general. But if you think of this planet and you see all the horror we do to each other and to the world you might wonder what to do. If you also have an image in mind of this world that looks rather different, were free human beings shape a sustainable world out of an inner necessity than you might wonder: How do I get that image into the world? How does that image become reality?

With these questions in mind, a vision of the world and a kind of theory I got the idea of me standing at a lectern, slicing bread in public. And that's what I'm still doing. A concious action were I stand in public, answering peoples questions about who I am, about my aims and thoughts and learn who that human being is, standing opposite me and what he or she thinks of the world.