THE MIRACLE
Left-hand dialogue
"I believe in miracles, and much, much more." "The way you ask that question sounds like you believe in utopia." "Well, I have to say that the change we hoped for was no change at all. But still everything is in motion. I'm happy about that. The desire for change brought about too much pressure." "These days utopians have all turned into confirmed pessimists. That doesn't mean that their yearning for utopia has diminished. On the contrary, that is exactly what prevents the possibility of change." "Are you suggesting that if you let go of the desire for change, you initiate a situation where change is possible?" "Behind closed doors." "Art behind closed doors?" "It's only natural that art should be out into the open whenever possible, but that has nothing to do with change. The given link between art and flux doesn't really exist. Art doesn't necessarily equal change." "Shouldn't art be unsettling, disconcerting,... shocking, even." "Exactly, and there not much art that..." "Oh yeah, it's all quite beautiful, isn't it." "Beauty is pure pleasure, depending on who uses the term." "Right now superficiality is rampant. Not just in art, but everywhere." "That doesn't mean that nothing is happening, it means that those who are really saying something are prone to being ignored." "So, are you one of them?" "That's a weird question. Tomorrow it will be different again. Just as long as things keep moving." "A dilemma of artifice versus content?" "That choice is up to the individual, and other factors such as money, power and prestige." "A world of money, power and prestige is to be prefered?" "The world in motion only knows 'l'Air du temps'."
THE MIRACLE
Right-hand dialogue
"Do you believe in a better world?" "I have to admit that my faith in utopia has been sorely tested." "It's become tarnished. Twenty years ago I thought that anything was possible." "You better be careful, people will be calling you a world-weary pessimist. Would you agree?" "No, not at all. I think the longing for utopia has made way for a sense of reality that gives us the opportunity to let things happen." "Behind closed doors or screaming from the rooftops?" "Years after hearing it for the first time, a good piece of music can take you back to where you first heard it. But no matter how close it comes to the source, it isn't real, it's only a memory, a record of our movements." "Would you say that memory is part of what you call movement? Can you actually define movement?" "For instance, take yourself. In the course of one day you do many different things, your mood changes, and you react in different ways. The urge to arrange and order makes it impossible for you to accept the shifts." "Would acceptance bring about the opposite of pessimism?" "Sure, there are many beautiful things out there." "Back to beauty?" "Does that mean that you're giving in to that same one-dimensionality of perception and action?" "No, of course that shallowness is there; but the form it takes becomes tarnished as soon as it emerges." "Openings that allow interesting movements to happen, come up in these moments of appearing and disappearing." "They flare up." "And that's why you believe in miracles." "And much, much more."