Gottfried Helnwein | PRESS | Internet | HELNWEIN AND I CREATED A LIVING INSTALLATION WITH TWO DISABLED NUDE WOMEN AS FAMILIES STOPPED THEIR PICNICS TO STARE.The Golden Age

"My escapade took me from Madrid to Milan and then to Paris. I met many characters whose company still clings to me in distorted flashbacks like lip prints on my collar. Jean Paul Gaultier gave me a scarab beetle and a book of Hans Bellmer's work. We talked about clothes that he will design for this tour. The mysterious and prurient curiosity of Gaspar Noe led me to a tour of Paris by night---we braved the transsexual-prostitute-breeding ground hidden in the center of the city. We talked about cinema (his film, "I Stand Alone" is one of my favorites) and we made plans to collaborate.
"Determined, I headed for the birthplace of Expressionism, humming "The Alabama Song," by Kurt Weill. It was time for The Grotesk Burlesk and dozens of mice scurried from the Kinderfeld. Their political organs had to be removed and we set them in formation, creating a metaphorical "question mark."

"The zeitgeist of Berlin's "degenerate art" was infused into Marilyn Manson and the people within the Volksbuhne Theatre that night. The decadence and reckless honesty that fear inspires, made the outside world irrelevant. Suddenly, I was the most unlikely ambassador of America. It became quite clear that the critical role for an artist, particularly an American one, is to ensure that our soldiers are risking their lives to defend a country that is worth living in. But how can the irreconcilable extremes of Marilyn Manson fit into this time of political upheaval when I have rarely believed in the behavior of the government? How can I be a proud American, when America has done its best to destroy me?
"SIMPLE---Isn't this the very core of what the two words "Marilyn" and "Manson" have represented from the beginning? If the U.S. stands for democracy and freedom, then the most patriotic thing an artist can do is to fight for those liberties. My opinion is a sharpened stick, poking democracy to make sure that it's not dead. By nature, I will always point out the duplicity of censorship in the music world. If I am forbidden to use an image, a lyric or a performance in one place, I will put it somewhere else. THE GOLDEN AGE OF GROTESQUE cannot be contained in just an album.
"Idea for a Hallmark card: "America needs Marilyn Manson as much as Marilyn Manson needs America." Romantic isn't it?

"In London, we vandalized a Versace billboard with two gigantic Marilyn Mice and had an amazing crowd sing along to the three piano numbers. Keith Flint (The Prodigy) presented me with his new band's remix of mOBSCENE on which he sings. We discussed illegal behavior, participated in illegal behavior and became the best of friends over a bottle of Absinthe.
"Villains and creeps, we have barely scratched the surface and The Grotesk Burlesk is coming home to Hollywood. This band has easily discovered how to make a fist with five middle fingers. Need I ask? ARE YOU MOTHERFUCKERS READY, FOR THE NEW SHIT?
"We will write the Bill of Wrongs.
"We have dismantled the recess bell. It does not toll for anyone.
"Sleep now, you were not spectators. You were part of the spectacle."


		23. April 2003 www.metalhammer.co.uk Marilyn Manson HELNWEIN AND I CREATED A LIVING INSTALLATION WITH TWO DISABLED NUDE WOMEN AS FAMILIES STOPPED THEIR PICNICS TO STARE. "High above Marlene Dietrich Blvd. in the city of Berlin, the sun smoldered below the concrete gutter sky like a cigarette burn in a stained bedsheet. How Edgar Allen Poetic. We set forth to the Dome of Berlin at dusk and I felt like I was in my own painting, "The Death of Art." Helnwein and I created a living installation with two disabled nude women as families stopped their picnics to stare. Of course we documented this for future viewing. But it didn't begin there...


		A mise-en-scene... "The zeitgeist of Berlin's "degenerate art" was infused into Marilyn Manson and the people within the Volksbuhne Theatre that night. The decadence and reckless honesty that fear inspires, made the outside world irrelevant. Suddenly, I was the most unlikely ambassador of America. It became quite clear that the critical role for an artist, particularly an American one, is to ensure that our soldiers are risking their lives to defend a country that is worth living in. But how can the irreconcilable extremes of Marilyn Manson fit into this time of political upheaval when I have rarely believed in the behavior of the government? How can I be a proud American, when America has done its best to destroy me? "SIMPLE---Isn't this the very core of what the two words "Marilyn" and "Manson" have represented from the beginning? If the U.S. stands for democracy and freedom, then the most patriotic thing an artist can do is to fight for those liberties. My opinion is a sharpened stick, poking democracy to make sure that it's not dead. By nature, I will always point out the duplicity of censorship in the music world. If I am forbidden to use an image, a lyric or a performance in one place, I will put it somewhere else. THE GOLDEN AGE OF GROTESQUE cannot be contained in just an album. "Idea for a Hallmark card: "America needs Marilyn Manson as much as Marilyn Manson needs America." Romantic isn't it?


		Pay attention! "In London, we vandalized a Versace billboard with two gigantic Marilyn Mice and had an amazing crowd sing along to the three piano numbers. Keith Flint (The Prodigy) presented me with his new band's remix of mOBSCENE on which he sings. We discussed illegal behavior, participated in illegal behavior and became the best of friends over a bottle of Absinthe. "Villains and creeps, we have barely scratched the surface and The Grotesk Burlesk is coming home to Hollywood. This band has easily discovered how to make a fist with five middle fingers. Need I ask? ARE YOU MOTHERFUCKERS READY, FOR THE NEW SHIT? "We will write the Bill of Wrongs. "We have dismantled the recess bell. It does not toll for anyone. "Sleep now, you were not spectators. You were part of the spectacle."


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