That really depends on each artist. For some people, artistic work is precisely that: work. But if they genuinely enjoy the process, if they find pleasure in what they’re doing, then perhaps there is a form of hedonism there, a pursuit of satisfaction or happiness in the simple act of creating. It all depends on the artist’s intention: how they work, what they choose to do, and how they relate to their own process. Personally, let’s value the journey, not just the final result. The middle of the project is where everything happens, where we learn, experiment, make mistakes, and discover. The end may bring satisfaction, or not. And in the end, it’s always the audience who will interpret the work in their own way.For me, the most important thing is to enjoy what we do. If there isn’t that genuine involvement, that connection to the process, then we’re not truly creating at all.

Pleasure is inseparable from artistic creation, but in my case, it’s certainly not in a hedonistic sense. Creative work allows me to access all states of mind and emotions with equal force, so while I’m creating, I’m mostly busy solving various problems I’ve posed to myself, and this can often be highly frustrating and uncomfortable. However, as I mentioned, I feel enormous pleasure when I spend days pursuing an idea that excites me and, especially, when I find it rediscovered in the studio, embodied in a way that still surprises me.

For me, pleasure has to be present because the world is already boring enough. When we watch a tedious work of art, whether at the opera, theater, a gallery, or on a record, no matter how conceptual it is (and today we live in a time full of justifications), I think we are not offering what really matters in art: a bath of beauty. Beauty in the broadest possible sense. But pleasure can be explicit in the work or implicit. And one obvious thing, which becomes clear when we look back at the artists we love or at specific works, is that there’s a lot of pleasure behind them. It can be provocative, intellectual, and sexual pleasure. Often, it is a Dionysian pleasure, sexual and festive. The artist may or may not know how to use this in daily life, but it’s there... I think that’s fundamental. And especially if we want to connect with younger people, who can’t stand the boredom, the tedium, of what it means to go see art, right? Nowadays, going to see art is almost an offense. That’s why I think there has to be a lot of pleasure.

Artistic creation is a dance with pleasure, broadly speaking. Most artists do experience pleasure when creating. The process of conceptualization and creation is what stimulates us the most, much more than the final contemplation or the moment the work is completed...or at least that’s how it is for me. Pleasure must be intrinsic to the act of producing, regardless of the form it takes. This isn’t to say that every moment of the creative process is (positively) pleasurable, but many of it is, at least on an intimate level, as a possibility of, once again, excreting, in new formats, in new byproducts, through new forms of energy or action, things that are intrinsic to us.And one obvious thing, which becomes clear when we look back at the artists we love or at specific works, is that there’s a lot of pleasure behind them. It can be provocative, intellectual, and sexual pleasure. Often, it is a Dionysian pleasure, sexual and festive. The artist may or may not know how to use this in daily life, but it’s there... I think that’s fundamental. And especially if we want to connect with younger people, who can’t stand the boredom, the tedium, of what it means to go see art, right? Nowadays, going to see art is almost an offense. That’s why I think there has to be a lot of pleasure.