Thomas Demand visited the SCHIRN’s Doug Aitken show and then answered a few brief questions for SCHIRN MAGAZIN.

German artist Thomas Demand lives and works in Los Angeles and has been friends with Doug Aitken for years now. Which is why Thomas Demand seized the opportunity of a recent visit to Germany to tour the Doug Aitken exhibition that has just opened at the SCHIRN. SCHIRN MAGAZIN was able to use the occasion to ask him a few questions:

SCHIRN MAGAZIN: You've relocated to Los Angeles and now live and work there. What aspects of Los Angeles fascinate you?

Thomas Demand: I was invited by GRI, the Getty Research Institute, who now and again awards a fellowship to an artist. And I had a few friends in the city, and have regularly exhibited there. So for me it was a great opportunity to move there for a few years.

SCHIRN MAGAZIN: Does the city influence your work in any special way?

Thomas Demand: That's for others to decide, but generally I find it very productive to redefine yourself and your surroundings now and again. And in particular Los Angeles is a very open, leisurely place to make art. There you have peace and quiet without being cut off, among other things because art tends to play a bit of a minor role.

SCHIRN MAGAZIN: How did you and Doug Aitken become friends?

Thomas Demand: We first met at a group show in Italy almost 20 years ago and have since always stayed in touch.

SCHIRN MAGAZIN: Shared interests?

Thomas Demand: There's all sorts of overlap, such as my interest in surfing [Doug Aitken is a passionate surfer, ed.] and his for the German language. And both of us find Will Ferrell really funny, which bonds more than you might think.

SCHIRN MAGAZIN: Is there a Doug Aitken piece to which you are especially attached?

Thomas Demand: "Electric Earth" (1999) remains a milestone of the genre. Doug was the first person to choreograph multiple projections in such as a way that they offered a spatio-temporal experience. He continues to be a virtuoso at this, and now dedicates his creative talents to major performative contexts. At the same time, his art also tussles with that thing called "beauty", which really irritates German art critics but which I find extremely interesting.

SCHIRN MAGAZIN: For "Station to Station" (2013) you realized your piece "trailer". How did you personally experience the "Station to Station" happening?

Thomas Demand: It was a happening that becomes ever more intoxicating as time goes by. And on the day it was simply an expression of the liberties Doug takes and then shares with a large audience -- even if many in the audience didn't actually know who Aitken actually is.

SCHIRN MAGAZIN: Can you describe the Doug Aitken show at the SCHIRN in a single sentence?

Thomas Demand: This is Doug's world, dive in!

SCHIRN MAGAZIN: Many thanks for your time!