Maurizio Cattelan Quotes

I am fascinated by the idea of employing beautiful images as a device to convey something extremely disturbing in an apparently harmless way.

Made in Catteland is a project that aims to overcome the boundaries of the work of art as we’re used to thinking of it: exploring new possibilities of reaching the audience through the creation of new forms of art.

When you place art in the shops, it’s a way to make it more accessible.

I get up in the morning and get to bed at night, and between, I bring equivalent dedication to everything I do, with a horror of the inaccurate and the half-baked.

Truth is so hard to tell, it sometimes needs fiction to make it plausible.

Stuffed animals are sad and scary; they have humorous and tragic qualities.

Sometimes I see myself as a locked box – very detached from myself and others. But I feel lucky, because I am the owner of my time, and you cannot buy time.

My aim is to be as open and as incomprehensible as possible. There has to be a perfect balance between open and shut.

I find Instagram interesting to the extent that new royal families are born and die there, such as The Kardashians of L.A.

It’s even more of a torture not to work than to work.

There are times when being scandalous or provocative can help bring focus to issues of major concern.

Based on my experience, it’s considerably difficult to force a donkey into doing something it perceives to be dangerous for whatever reason.

Money is a bad friend. Don’t ever do anything for money.

Sooner or later, all magazines end up in the toilet.

Work was always necessary to survive. Then I decided the goal should be to survive without working. But now I have much more work than I had before. Hunting for freedom, I’ve found the real prison. but at least it’s a prison I’ve chosen for myself.

Some do design in order to try to solve others’ problems, while others make art in order to give others his problems.

Laughter is a Trojan horse to enter into direct contact with the unconscious, strike the imagination, and trigger visceral reactions.

From my point of view, humour and irony include tragedy; they’re two sides of the same coin.

I never talk about my work as a joke.

I would describe myself as a tallish, shy, middle-aged man who equally loves his work and his freedom. And a good liar!

I would never make fun of anyone who is obviously disabled who cannot defend himself, like Donald Trump.

I don’t like the idea of having a public image. In the end, you have an image of someone, which becomes true whether it is or not.

Provocations are like a Molotov cocktail. They only work one time out of ten, but when it works, it can also be dangerous for the arm that is throwing it. It’s the price that has to be paid.

I think that laughter and death are closely related: comedy is the quintessential human reaction to the fear of death. It’s probably linked with the fact that we are the only animals who know we must die.

I have become an employee of art.

Warhol was proof that you can be revolutionary without being militant.

Gianni Agnelli was a sharp mind, and most of his interviews carried meanings between the lines that only now are fully readable.

Damien Hirst knows how to drive super-fast cars… I love my bicycle.

The best art is on the street.

I work more with my stomach than my brain.