If you could live with just one work of art, what would it be?
Today it would be Graciela Carnevale’s Acción del encierro (Lock-up Action), the documentation of a performance in 1968. The artist employed the brutality and violence of the [Argentine] dictatorship. I find it incredibly powerful but also perverse and humorous. She arrived to her opening, let her guests in, locked the door and left. They eventually escaped by smashing the window.
Which cultural experience changed the way you see the world?
My [German] secondary schools had excellent art classes. We made regular trips to see German Expressionist painting at the Ludwig Museum which was the first time I remember connecting politics with art so directly. A student trip to the Kröller-Müller Museum, riding bicycles around whilst stoned, influenced my interest in public art. Rosemarie Trockel’s exhibition at the Whitechapel in 1998 (I didn’t understand it, but I couldn’t stop thinking about it). A Le Tigre gig featuring a slideshow of women artists—a pre-internet list of trailblazing women I hadn’t heard of.
Which writer or poet do you return to the most?
One regularly returns to one’s favourite, PG Wodehouse. Particularly Jeeves. They are the funniest books ever written, and Wodehouse’s depictions of class and intellectual disparity is the gift that keeps giving. I think they are the only books that have made me cry with laughter.
What music or other audio are you listening to?
I listen to a lot of news because, clearly, I hate myself and don’t care about my mental health.
What are you watching, listening to, or following that you would recommend?
I love TV. It’s my second favourite art medium on my art medium Top Ten. Somebody Somewhere is one of the best shows I have seen in the last couple of years. It’s about friendship and how personal struggles can feel at once life-ending and all-encompassing, and simultaneously so banal. It’s beautiful. Also I am up to date on Selling Sunset. Don’t @ me.
What is art for?
Trying to find out. Ask me later.
• GALLI: So, So, So, Goldsmiths CCA, London, 7 February-4 May
