Unmitigated Chutzpah

The unmitigated chutzpah of this avant-garde, Eurotrash charlatan is simply beyond belief.

In a recent interview in the German edition of Vanity Fair, the director-cum-artist Christoph Schlingensief has expressed an interest in heading the prestigious Richard Wagner Festival in Bayreuth. But as the Frankfurter Rundschau reports, the controversial Schlingensief does not want to take the position alone. "Why shouldn't Bayreuth be taken over by a team of artists?" Schlingensief asked. "Why shouldn't I apply [for the position as festival director] with Matthew Barney or Paul McCarthy or Doug Aitken?"

For Schlingensief, Barney, McCarthy, and Aitken are the dominant American media and performance artists. Schlingensief — who directed Wagner's Parsifal at the festival in 2004 to mixed audience reactions — is critical of the fact that only members of the Wagner family have applied to take over from outgoing director Wolfgang Wagner. "I link Wagner with life," Schlingensief said. "Bayreuth needs contact with life, that's all. And life is not always commensurable with the Wagners."

Nor with the Schlingensiefs of this world.

Presumptuous, contemptible little cretin.

(The above news item taken from Artforum International Magazine.)