On the occasion of the Cosey-expo ‘Panorama’ at Papiers Gras (see my previous post), the ‘Tribune de Genève‘ publishes an excellent interview with Cosey, written by Philippe Muri. Cosey explains things about his way of working, his artistic troubles while writing a scenario and drawing, his ease with working on colours – I guess this is already well known by fans of Cosey. But he tells us also some new things – among others: a new album in the making!
I will summarize a few of the highlights of the interview.
Cosey explains how works for the exposition have been selected. The first selection is made by himself – he starts by selecting the drawings that he does not want to show. After his selction, the gallery manager makes his selection. All in all, you can see some 100 works at Papiers Gras, with an emphasis on the more recent albums.
Cosey tells that he keeps some pages that he doesn’t want to sell: only some ten pieces… I think we are all curious to know about which pages!!
Philippe Muri confronts Cosey with some quotes by Derib, that you can read in ‘Cosey, Une quête de l’épure‘ (2018, 9eArt+ éditions). First is that, according to Derib, Cosey is rather a story-teller then an artist – Cosey fully agrees. He says he only draws to tell a story, he doesn’t draw for drawing’s sake. Derib also told that Cosey might write a novel – in this, Cosey disagrees more or less: even if the idea of writing a novel is tempting, he wants to draw what is playing in his head.
Finally, Cosey tells a little bit about the new album he is working on. It is to be expected in 2025 and it will be published by LeLombard. It will have around 70 pages. The story will have scenes in the Alps (the Pays d’Enhaut region in Switzerland), in China during the cultural revolution, in Taiwan and some bits in London. What will the story be about: ‘human beings with feelings’…
Thanks to Bernard Matthey-Doret