Artist Not Vital Builds His Own Habitat | Louisiana Channel

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“If you’re a painter, you need a canvas. If you’re a sculptor, you need marble or plaster. And if you build a house, you need a piece of land.” Welcome to the wonderful world of Not Vital. The Swiss multi-faceted artist shows us his sculpture park, foundation, and castle in this video.
We meet Not Vital in his studio in Sent, the town in Switzerland where he grew up and one of the places where he still lives. Building places to live have been with him since childhood: “My first work was more related to trying to build a house or a habitat. The first one was when I was only three years old in 1951. There was so much snow that my brother and I built a tunnel,” he says and continues: “I think that it was the first time I realised that I like to build my own habitat. Even though it was much more comfortable to live in the house, I spent the day in the tunnel. I remember the light, the smell of the snow. I just felt great.”
Through the years, Vital has led a nomadic life, seeking and building homes in various cities around the globe: Paris, New York, Beijing, Rio de Janeiro. He has bought an island made of Marble in Patagonia, called NotOna. In Niger, he has built a house whose only purpose is to watch the sunset. He calls these hybrids of sculpture and architecture ‘Scarch’: “It opened up a whole new world for me, which became very important. I’m calling that ‘Scarch’ because it’s a kind of sculpture and architecture. Because I’m not an architect, I didn’t want to be an architect or study architecture because I would probably have gone in a different direction.” Buying pieces of land worldwide is essential for his artistic practice. He explains: “If you’re a painter, you need a canvas. If you’re a sculptor, you need marble or plaster. And if you build a house, you need a piece of land. That’s kind of all related.”
‘Scarch’ is not the only thing Vital makes. He also creates sculptures in silver, makes humorous wordplays with antlers and paints portraits: “I want to show the way I see. I don’t want to change anything.” The portraits he started painting in 2008. Often they depict the people surrounding him. Other times, it is significant artists such as a young Rembrandt and Nina Simone. “When I paint, I think about a lot of Rothko. The colours. How to put two colours together. But of course, this is figurative,” Vital reflects and continues: “Actually, they have everything in it. They have eyes and noses. And that’s great by painting that whatever you put in the canvas stays in the canvas. Even though you paint it over, it’s still there.” Not Vital does not differ between the many different artforms he works with: “Art is one. It doesn’t matter if it’s the 15th century or if it’s now. It’s all related.”
Not Vital (b. 1948) is a Swiss artist who works in diverse media across installations, paintings, drawings and sculptures, typically integrating architecture. Vital divides his time between the U.S., Niger, Italy, China and Switzerland, and his art is centred on personal impressions and experiences from around the world. This somewhat anthropological approach is also reflected in how his career is structured into sections, e.g. glass blowers in Murano or paper artists in Bhutan. Vital’s work has been featured in the 49th Venice Biennale in Italy (2001), and he has held significant exhibitions at prominent venues such as the Kunsthalle Bielefeld in Germany (2005), The Arts Club of Chicago in the U.S. (2006), Ullens Center For Contemporary Art in Beijing, China (2011), the Museo d’arte di Mendrisio in Switzerland (2014-15) and Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, London (2021).
Roxanne Bagheshirin Lærkesen interviewed Not Vital at his studio in Sent, Switzerland, in August 2021.
Camera: Rasmus Quistgaard
Produced and edited by: Roxanne Bagheshirin Lærkesen
Copyright: Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, 2022
Louisiana Channel is supported by Den A.P. Møllerske Støttefond, Ny Carlsbergfondet, C.L. Davids Fond og Samling and Fritz Hansen.
#NotVital #Architecture #Artist
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[@thelouisianachannel]

*Watch Not Vital's advice to aspiring artists:* kzbin.info/www/bejne/g5zKmaeIjrGNo7c

[@K3dzz]

I love Not Vital so much, I aspire to be like him. He simply lives life, and does what he wants, while being a genuinely lovely human being

[@Christina_Bowers]

Until this morning I had never heard of Not Vital and am more than impressed. This guy rocks! I am most positive he has had a most interesting life! I’d love to spend a day with him.

[@arabelavaz7950]

Architecture of the beauty, man and nature. I love it. Thank you so much, art is life, very life.

[@illustratornamedkasper]

So many great interesting observations you can dwell upon. The music seems tailored for this video =)

[@user-ym7ew4pw4j]

Wunderschöne Welt von Notvital. Positiv und Lebensbejahend.

[@tomwaite4594]

So very inspiring and depressing at the same moment...inspirational in his creative genius and quite depressing knowing that you will never reach his higher plane of thinking. Thank You for this video

[@johnkrogh5532]

Thank you for the this view into an artist I have never herd of. I like the calm and kind of natural way everything is set in this video. The place the story the art.

[@spaceforthesoul6286]

That's why I dream for a piece of land

[@Rhinoch8]

As a fellow Swiss, I can assure you that it is extremely difficult to do these kinds of things in a swiss village. There are lots of rules, and if you're not at the city council you can't just do whatever you like in any non-traditional fashion. This person has a ton of money to pay for his whims and buy into a carefully crafted personal narrative. I'm kind of jealous of course. And I don't like the way he talks about the people in the village. Good for him it's all his property I guess...

[@MarcelRecasens]

Well yeah, calling them all donkeys maybe was not very nice

[@singha6]

@@MarcelRecasensPrivilege of the rich

[@cyrxl]

Totally agree, I enjoy a lot of his work but he comes across as arrogant quite often. Many of his local projects are only possible because of his wealth and fame.

[@o_oo_o1812]

poor person: you can't park your car there criminal rich person: of course we can demolish that bridge we believe in progress and freedom

[@alexanderkern9565]

His sheer will and determination lead to his artwork, followed by his deserved wealth, and finally these incredible projects - he earned this privilege through a lifetime of commitment towards his art. Calling your townspeople donkeys, similarly to how you'd call your own family members sometimes, hardly is arrogant, but endearing. Nuance.

[@isaacschmitt9194]

this was really incredible, what an interesting mind

[@TheArquivopop]

Incredible!!!!

[@johanneshaushofer9844]

A story about art brilliantly told.

[@mushfequssaleheen6498]

Grateful to you

[@MaxPhotoGraphic]

I think the same.

[@gerromy222]

Great, thanks !

[@maxabeles]

That's cool - Nietzsche's old stomping grounds.

[@chrisborjaspiegel]

Amazing

[@adn9263]

Quel régal ! Thank u

[@liammcooper]

this is amazing

[@georgescharoun2064]

As someone interested in the production of this style of artist interview, I'd be very interested to know how long this video took to plan, film and edit, and how many crew were on the shoot. Thank you

[@ottomattsson4574]

Also wanna know:)

[@thelouisianachannel]

Hi George. Thanks so much for your comment. The video shoot was arranged over a couple of months, the filming took place only for a day and the edit took a couple of weeks. In regards to the crew, there was only the producer/journalist and the photographer on the shoot.

[@georgescharoun2064]

@@thelouisianachannel Thank you very much for this. It's helpful to hear that it can all be done with a light crew and still achieve great results.

[@gc8972b]

Comments are gold. I am surprised an artist can still bring a rule-monger out of people in the 21st century

[@_cloudface_]

I'm surprised anyone is using the term "rule-monger" in the comments section where people just post their opinions 😐

[@Zincink]

My fav is Basquiat's Astronot. Very funny :D Not a fan of the camel destruction. The snowballs reminded me of enormous water droplets. He has the luxury of going all over the place to these unique buildings. I laughed when he had risen from the earth hehe :D

[@jennypage7991]

I was intrigued initially by this artist and interview-UNTIL he said he said "We bought the camel, killed it, cut it up and put it in here ‘ ‘It’s all about believing ". Horrible! Abusing and/or killing animals for or in the name of "art" is NOT ART , it's sadism and murder. That poor poor Camel! Heartbreaking! Maddening! I did not continue watching after that! So sad.

[@JAKAL-6]

fire

[@nataliekazful]

It's conclusive that he has a sound mind to name himself "Not Vital". Watching this was an enjoyable experience of perplexity, reacting with both love and hate to the art and the artist. And I guess that's the point. Sincerely, Not an artist

[@thelouisianachannel]

Thanks so much for watching. 🌷 His birthname is actually Not Vital 😊

[@boxtruckhouse]

I love that dude.

[@uhhlargesoda1101]

rich dude plays minecraft irl

[@jackgodfrey9990]

What a fascinating insight into not’s artistic universe. thank you! PS I’m intrigued what is the music used on this film please ?

[@estebanfreytes]

Wait wait.. what did he said about he killed a camel..!? For those silver balls?. What!?

[@tech9nne]

These videos are fantastic. Cant believe there is this much good free content. University architecture classes could watch this.

[@o_oo_o1812]

him: at the austrian-itallian border me: wait? they share a border google maps: yep

[@TheKunstlich]

u must b american :-))

[@o_oo_o1812]

@@TheKunstlich i'm nigerian but i hope to go to america one day :)

[@jackfirmin5814]

The camel work made me think about the bible verse: “Truly I tell you, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” Hmm, so here we have a rich man trapping/stuffing a whole camel in some silver balls... hmm hmm

[@latetodagame1892]

Does he sell these or just live in them

[@dear_darling]

Comments are fire. For anyone provoked please know this artist wed (married) a horse…and yes it’s on KZbin 😂

[@veronicapagelaflin]

I love you

[@vemden547]

Why does everyone assume they really stuffed a camel inside the silver balls?

[@compo36]

8:14 " Dans mon rêve de vie éternelle, il ne se passe pas grand-chose. Peut-être que je vis dans une grotte. Oui, j'aime les grottes, il fait sombre et frais et je me sens en sécurité à l'intérieur. Souvent je me demande si il y'a eu un réel progrès depuis la vie dans les grottes. Lorsque je suis assis là, écoutant calmement le bruit de la mer, entouré de créatures amicales, je pense à ce que je voudrais enlever dans ce monde : les puces, les oiseaux de proie, l'argent et le travail. Probablement aussi les films porno et la croyance en Dieu. " Michel Houellebecq, interventions 2020, " J'ai un rêve ".

[@paulschnyder938]

‘We bought the camel, killed it, cut it up and put it in here ‘ ‘It’s all about believing ‘. It’s no mystery that most of us think that 90% of modern art is pretentious crap.

[@tthomas184]

Enjoy your print of dogs playing poker. It's the print of choice for 90 percent of people who think most modern art is pretentious crap.

[@kirbycairo]

I've been an artist and art teacher for over forty years and this just reminds me of what a con job so much art has become. If you are connected or well known you can paint or sculpt anything and people will say "wow, isn't that clever and interesting" about things that they would otherwise say "what a bunch of pretentious junk."

[@JEEDUHCHRI]

Exactly. It’s most of it is tripe. This dude just has money to piss around.

[@jackfirmin5814]

its always been like this. But no worries, there is art for every taste

[@JEEDUHCHRI]

@@jackfirmin5814 absolutely. We are lucky to live in a time with so much art. It’s an embarrassment of riches.

[@JEEDUHCHRI]

@@jackfirmin5814 absolutely. We are lucky to live in a time with so much art. It’s an embarrassment of riches.

[@tthomas184]

. He has absolutely no need to con anyone, he already has plenty of money he could be spending like any other rich person. No need to make art. If a rich person makes bad work, sure there will always be people to say oh how clever. Just like there are tons of less successful artists many of whom are teachers, who also do bad or mediocre work, and people say how clever. Yes this guy is rich and entitled. But he also happens to be a very good artist. That you can't see that is your loss.

[@reaganwiles_art]

just a rich guy who makes a bunch of boring stuff with his money, kind of reminds me of Dante's Divine Comedy "Yeah old Dante's pretty good I guess, The Divine Comedy," opined my friend Jeffrey one day on the yard, "Kinda long and boring as hell." He laughed. But of course, we both knew it was true. a real artist can make a miracle happen with a sheet of paper and a number two pencil if he's got that fire!

[@swagn1f1c13nt]

This guy is trapped in his own head and somehow the world allows it and even condones it

[@sebastianmelmoth685]

I don't think the world cares.

[@dago87able]

In a free world, as long as you’re not breaking any law, it should be so.

[@airmark02]

I'm sure this rambling self-indulgent chatter is considered profound by someone.

[@outofoblivionproductions4015]

His houses are all empty, just like his art.

[@zalanahara270]

Modern Art is complete garbage, was that feces on his wall 1:13.

[@MontyCantsin5]

@Zephyr: All art made between 1860 and 1970 is terrible? What a bizarre claim.

[@sadville13]

This guys just has way too much money to play with...

[@christopherstepek2745]

This guy has no idea of what idea of what he’s talking about