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Everyone can be an artist, any place can become a studio, and now is the best time to be creative. These are the ideas that have long guided German artist and educator Daniel Hoernemann-Walbrodt, whose work explores the role art can play in transforming society. The creator of the performative installation Office for the Use of Mistakes and Coincidences and recipient of the Economy Meets Art Award for artistic interventions in public and corporate spaces, he was also one of the lecturers at the 20th edition of ArtCamp, the international summer school organized by the University of West Bohemia in Pilsen. In this interview for INFO.zcu, Hoernemann-Walbrodt reflects on his journey to art, creativity in everyday life, and what he hopes participants take away from his workshops.


What first led you to work with people, public space, and artistic interventions instead of creating artworks only for galleries?
To be in a totally different context, and I'm using the system as material. This is, I think, a core attitude. And I'm also thinking that, on the other hand, I wanted to free art from the museum and from the stage and the gallery, and bring it back into daily life and society, so that people can't say anymore: Oh, here I do my work, and there I'm creative in my free time.

You often say that everyone can be creative and that every place can become a studio. Why do you think art should be part of everyday life, not only something we experience in museums or galleries?
I perceive that we live in times when we definitely need all the creativity we can get, and we need much more creativity than we have practiced until now. Art is a system in which this creative perceiving, thinking, and acting is contained very purely, and we should bring it back to all societal levels, such as schools, public administration, and the economy, to really engage with our contemporary multiple problems and create new aesthetic solutions. As problem-solving, but also as a way for human beings to live together and live together with anything else on this planet.

One of your best-known projects was the Atelier within the Company, where you worked in an IT company. Why did you decide to bring art into a business, and what happened there that surprised you the most?
I took the chance once because entrepreneurs and artists can easily talk to each other, since they are both excited about what they want to do. I met this guy from an IT company, and he said, "Oh, I have a space where you can exhibit." I said, "No, I don't want to exhibit. I want to work there. I want to build up a studio." He said, "Okay, go for it." I started, and the employees were, in the first place, a little bit irritated, but they liked it. It was not about painting with them or drawing with them. We played some games together and had some puzzles together, for instance. And sometimes they commented on my work, like I remember this guy who was really upset, saying, "Oh, Daniel, now you really messed up what you painted before. I really liked it, but what you did last, you really messed it up."

And what did the employees gain from it?
In reflection, the value of individuality became more central. Before, they said, "Oh, we do paperless desks and clean desks, and everybody can work everywhere." After that, they valued having spaces to be creative, to create. Atmosphere in a space, also, not being part of a machine, like everything is clean. So, there was a higher level of consciousness, and they changed some plans for this atmosphere and for the people working in it.

This project received the Economy Meets Art Award. What do you think made it successful?
I think it is the right way to combine art with, for instance, economics, or anything else like public administration. This prize led to the next project. I opened a studio in a huge public administration for two years, had many interactions, and did a lot of work on the artistic approach in public administration. What came out most is letting the employees and the human beings inside the system be part of more creativity and a more creative environment, and also be part of the decision-making. So, this could be seen as one puzzle in a huge movement where people want to be more engaged in something. Also, as citizens, they want to be more engaged. In a company, they want to be more engaged, and it is necessary for them to be more engaged to change things for the better.

In your workshop here at ArtCamp, what is the most important thing you hope participants will discover about themselves or about creativity?
My workshop has a subtitle, "Being Creative," and I really focus on what it means to be creative, how creativity emerges, and how we hinder creativity. I do mean creativity beyond any technique. So, it doesn't mean being creative with a brush and a pen. It can be about being creative with something at home, at work, with communication, or with the way of living. I distinguish different levels of creativity. The first one for me is the basic creativity every human being has, the capability to dream in a very unpredictable and emerging way. The next conscious level of creativity is problem-solving. Most people regard themselves as creative problem-solvers. I would like the participants to feel their own creativity more, without a problem, or even creating a kind of aesthetic problems, like questions and research, being interested in something. Doing research and doing aesthetic work, artwork, creative work on that, to develop consciousness about life, what it means to be alive.