Episode #115: Dena Shottenkirk speaks with Viennese gallerist Christine König about literature and art at Salzburg5020 Gallery

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00- 1:30: Shottenkirk introduces the project.
1:30 - 3:05: König clarifies the definition of art to be broadly construed to mean culture at large, and Shottenkirk agrees. König then states that she doesn't really know why other people care about art though she personally cares for literature and for her specific gallery program. Art is like food: we need but we do not ask "do you care about food?" This is just part of our life.
3:05 - 4:28: Shottenkirk notes that every species care about food but we are the only species that cares about art. König says, "Yes, I think so, too, animals don't care about art." But people consume art. We like it and we need it like food. Shottenkirk agrees that there is a need, and then wonders what it is that we get out of it. König states that before she goes to bed she reads literature. "I live everything behind and enter another universe."
4:29 - 10:30: Shottenkirk says, "ok, let's go down that road". We are able to enter into someone else's perspective and that it is empathetic. She uses the example of a book by the Jamaican writer Claude McKay. König agrees that it is the goal of literature. And that brings us into others' worlds more than art. Shottenkirk asks why, and König says it's because it is something one does it alone, and that is something we need.
10:33 - 14:35: An audience member interjects and says, "Chekov says, 'art is the pain, not the doctor.' It means that Art doesn't have to bring solutions, it has to describe the problem." Other audience members add to this thought. Shottenkirk uses the example of McKay's description of having Trotsky say something racist and how that pain that McKay is, on a small scale, inside Shottenkirk's head now. But König disagrees, and says, "But maybe that not as pain but as knowledge." Shottenkirk agrees. And König says, "but it is a pleasure."
14:36 - 23:40: König notes that people do not read as much now. She notes an amazing book by Tolstoy "Aufverstehung". Shottenkirk then states that visual art does the same thing that you can get inside someone else's head. But König says, "I'm not so sure if you can compare them...you start reading...but you can start looking at the painting but you look at another painting, but with the book you must stay in the book for some time." She also notes that contemporary art requires prior knowledge of art. Shottenkirk agrees and asks if it true of literature. König says no. Shottenkirk says she has never heard anyone say that but it seems true, and sad. But König disagrees a bit stating that everything requires knowledge.
23:45 - : König shares a little about the origin of her daughter's name (whose birthday is today) and the literary origins of her names. König notes that music is a bit like literature as it is easy to "open the door" and enter in to. Yet, still, it requires some knowledge. For music and opera, "you have to tell them the story" and Shottenkirk questions whether that is in art. But König notes that there is in fact a story as it is how the artist came to this point. Shottenkirk agrees, and König states that she always challenges young artists how they are "adding a little piece to art history". It is important that "they all know what has been before." Shottenkirk adds that it is because we are building "social knowledge". This is why humans like art. We need to empathize in order to build knowledge. König agrees.
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