Журнал Andy Warhol's Interview Россия Interview № 1 | Page 274

274/ ENGLISH SUMMARY
“unequal democracy.” However, Facebook is an
excellent way to show people what could be seen
only in museums and galleries. For example, some-
one is always “liking” my posts, asking me ques-
tions, I answer right there—it turns into a short
exclusive interview. Very alive.
BIANCA: And very much in the spirit of Inter-
view. I heard that your favorite artist was Andy
Warhol. Is that true?
TERENCE: Of course.
BIANCA: But you just mentioned how Ai Wei-
wei inspired you! And at the same time you enjoy
Andy? Warhol was a surprising, extraordinary per-
son. But what fascinated him most was celebrity
and money. Do you feel that one can be a role
model for young people, stand up for democratic
principles, human rights and freedom of speech,
yet at the same time be dazzled by a vain life of
celebrity and money?
TERENCE: Well, I don’t think there’s any-
thing wrong in this.
BIANCA: Of course not. But can they work to-
gether?
TERENCE: It’s very simple. I am interested in
the human being. I am fascinated by the life of Ai
or Andy almost as much as their art projects. I al-
ways want to understand how an artist chooses to
live life. Andy made his choice. He wanted the me-
dia and stars to serve him, because it was appropri-
ate for his time. The same for Ai Weiwei: he choos-
es the Internet and public life. Because it is timely
now. I like how he uses his blog and tries to influ-
ence his followers to provoke change in the world,
how he reacts when his blog is blocked. They cre-
ated change in different ways, but both hastened
the approaching changes.
BIANCA: You know, I was very close to Andy.
He was really a child: curious, sincere, innocent.
He essentially believed that there was nothing in-
significant in the world—everything was important
and interesting. I think that you also have this
child-like capacity
to constantly be inspired, to
”
change, to be interested.
TERENCE: Thank you.
BIANCA: I remember when Andy was work-
ing on Interview magazine, I sometimes went with
him to interview stars. Before meeting the subject,
I did thorough research: read every article,
watched films, listened to recordings. But Andy
just went with a bunch of disarming questions—
such simple and straightforward questions the rest
of us would not venture to ask.
TERENCE: When I interviewed Ai Weiwei we
were also talking about very simple things: what
kind of food he liked, what movies he watches.
What were your favorite things to do with Andy?
BIANCA: I just adored going to galleries with
him. Andy revered Joseph Beuys. And it seemed
to me that Joseph idolized Andy. It was fascinating
to watch how they related to each other.
TERENCE: Amazing.
VAGABUND
p. 100
by ARMAS VIKSTRÖM
Hip-hop band formed by London resident
Oxxxymiron and German citizen MC Schokk
has become this year’s sensation in Russian rap.
Members of Vagabund, who have lived abroad
for 15 years, absorbed grime and dubstep from
very young age—and now like crusaders are con-
quering new territory for it. “We are like bugs in
an anthill. We came to the sandbox of Russian rap
to show what kind of crap you’ve been fed all these
years. I don’t mean someone swearing, but that rap
here is hackneyed and trite. I want to bite people’s
heads off for this,” Miron declares—Oxxxymiron to
the fans. The 26-year old graduate of Oxford men-
tions Plutarch, Blavatskaya, beatniks, Nitsche and
Vonnegut in his tracks, but at the same time can
easily blurt that you have had intimate relations
with your mother. Repeatedly. And in the most in-
tricate way.
Since the time of Krovostok, our hip-hop has not
heard such ingeniuous, perverted and, let’s be hon-
est, abusive lyrics—like the shock Americans felt
with Eminem’s first tracks. The scandalous reputa-
tion of Eminem is a “can-do” thing for Miron: on
the Internet his clips “I’m a Hater” and “Russian
Cockney” have been viewed 100,000 times, his de-
but album has become the most discussed topic on
forums, and today’s concert could not hold every-
one that wanted to get in, so the organizers had to
arrange an additional performance. “Local hip-hop
gives us a felling of dеja vu: it’s 10 years behind the
rest of the world. With access to the Internet, the
young generation are listening to contemporary
Western rappers and, not finding counterparts at
home, are losing interest in Russian rap, says
Miron’s bandmate Dima Schokk. In contrast to
Oxxxy—who has a degree in medieval English lit-
erature and spews quotes from Crowley and Mam-
leev—Schokk is a real gangster. His body is marked
with tattoos from fist to head. A sculptor by educa-
tion, Dima ran away to London from Germany,
where he had lived most of his life, due to problems
with the law: a Bamberg court found him guilty of
armed robbery and drug dealing. Schokk frankly
raps about all this on his solo album—and he is be-
ing heard. Splitting with his German group Keller
Kommando, which had a contract with a major la-
bel and concerts in 1000-seat venues, Dima made a
name for himself in battle rap. In essence, this is
verbal bullying and demonstrative insults at the
other rappers. The clip for the song “Feast Today
and Fast Tomorrow” recorded with Oxxxy, has
been viewed more than half a million times.
“East London is like our ancestral home, but
forget its popular image—it’s very sleezy. One dark
night I will lead you through East Mordor: the un-
derbelly of the city comes to life in reservoirs and
wastewater, through baroque windows. E2 and E4
are the postal indexes, but it’s not a move against
blacks; here are the throngs, the hordes, attracted
by the rich fodder, like we were in 94, when I was
still useless in this world,” Miron raps the story of
his life in England to a pounding grime backing
track. About how he got divorced, about how he
placed the Arbat rich kids into private schools,
how he was diagnosed as a manic depressive,
about real London being “lust, Bollywood, trash,
E16, a mix of nations, Bangladesh, Vietnamese
and full of 16-year-old mothers.” The people in the
hall echo every line, even though they’ve never
been to the Kennington neighborhood that
Oxxxymiron lays down: for them this is a scene
from a parallel reality, like showing The Kids be-
hind Miron or a news report on British riots—it’s a
foreign world across the seven seas, so far and yet
resembling their own. And Vagabund, like cocky
trubadors, lay down songs from the chronicles of
their adventures. “Moving from Germany to Lon-
don, I noticed that there is no difference between
the immigrants besideds language. Skipping from
place to place, you stop being who you were be-
fore. Today’s immigrants are a separate nation of
homeless cosmopolitans, eternal wanderers,” ex-
plains Dima Schokk. “That is why we are called
Vagabund, ‘hobos’. We have roots, but they were
pulled from the ground. We’re not clearly under-
stood in either Russia, Germany or England.”
The most surprising thing is that these two are
only the tip of the iceberg of two hundred people
united by the Russian language, way of life and
place of official residence. Almost a half of them
are rap, scratch records, paint graffiti or make mu-
sic: dubstep and intstrumental hip-hop, jungle and
deafening hardcore, crafty electronic and fairly
coarse house—they are not limited by genre. “It’s
simply impossible to list of the participants of
Greenpark,” Miron claims, “Just speaking of rap-
pers we have two dozen: Zhenya No Limit, who
does freestyle for an hour without stopping, Grju
from the Riga group MBPK, still young MC
Markul, who just put out his debut album, Dama-
ny and Den Bro, Yura Goblin from the group
Three Monologues, Ganz... I could list still more,
but your magazine doesn’t have enough room.”
BOB
COLACELLO
p. 180
by ALIONA DOLETSKAYA
The managing editor of Interview magazine
from 1970–1983 tells what it was like working
and taking strolls with Andy Warhol, and how
he survived it.
We are meeting Bob on a brilliant, autumn morn-
ing in Steven Kasher Gallery on 23rd Street, Chel-
sea, New York. Colacello strikes you with his lively
and vigorous look, his phenomenal memory and
impeccable elegance (dress shirt cuffs exposed by
no more than the canonic one and a half to two
centimeters), so atypical for journalists and writers.
ALIONA: Bob, how do you think Andy Warhol
would have reacted to the idea of launching Inter-
view magazine in Russia and Germany?
BOB: I think he would have reacted very posi-
tively. First of all, he was always very popular in
Germany. Secondly, he was born in Eastern Slova-
kia, so the Russians were not foreign to him. And
thirdly, he would have never passed up a chance to
make some money. It was he who came up with
that “business is an art form” idea.
ALIONA: Your book called “Holy Terror”
makes it clear that at work and at home Andy was
quite an unsavory character, to put it mildly. Why
did people put up with him resignedly when he
treated them so badly?
BOB: It is actually why I wrote my book: to
sort out my feelings toward Andy. There were two
Andys, as it were: a good Andy and a bad one. All
people working with Warhol were grateful to him
for the chance he gave them. Back then, it was not
so easy for a twenty-year old guy to land a job.
I came to the magazine when I was 22, fresh out of
college. Fred Hughes became president of our
company when he was barely 25, our accountant
was turning 21, editor Jay Johnson was 20. Andy
gave us interesting work, paid us a salary and, on
top of that, opened up a new world where one
could meet the most influential people.
ALIONA: But it was you who on many occa-
sions said that Warhol was a man of genius!
BOB: Sure, I don’t deny it! And men of ge-
nius—I was fortunate enough to know several of
them quite well—take whatever they please from
the people around them and then throw them
away when there was nothing left to be taken.
When you are 35, it is quite hard to realize that all
your ideas and talents have been appropriated by
another person only because he is more famous
than you are and can afford to do it. I was Andy’s
ghostwriter, my ideas were used in advertisements
for free...If I had done it all on the side, I would
have made a ton of money. But I never hated
Andy. If anything, my feelings toward Andy can