“I was a lousy academic. I spent most of my time in the cafeteria. But I met fantastic people from all kinds of fields; law, medicine, history, and they eventually dispersed all over the world to do their fieldwork. I liked the way these people committed to the long term in a sincere, visionary way. Their projects weren't about "next season." They were ten-year commitments. They were lifestyle choices that had traditions of fieldwork built into them - moving around, living on location, discipline, a real rigor for research.” PeopleWorldWayYearsKindLongRealMovingLawChoicesNextTermFieldsDisciplineMetsTenProjectsResearchCommitmentBuiltTraditionSeasonsMedicineCommittedLifestyleAll KindsFantasticLong TermMy TimeSincereAcademicLocationVisionariesLiving OnRigorCafeteriaLifestyle ChoicesFieldwork Author:Aleksandra Mir
“I try to make that tension almost stupidly overt in my projects, almost ridiculously so. I keep coming back to the same obvious points again and again.” TryingProjectsObviousTensionAgain And AgainComing Back Author:Aleksandra Mir
“There are ends, occasionally, with projects. That happens. But they are natural dead ends. It's usually the outside situation that demands an ending. I never really settle for one.” EndsHappensNaturalSituationDemandProjectsSettlingDead Ends Author:Aleksandra Mir
“The Stonehenge proposal got a lot of interesting criticism. One of the best - or worst - said something like, "Go home to Las Vegas." I think this project could possibly be realized at a very late part of my career. Right now, I don't have the authority, the budget, the credibility.” ThinkingSaidHomeInterestingCareersWorstRight NowAuthorityProjectsLateCriticismBudgetsCredibilityProposalVegasLas VegasStonehenge Author:Aleksandra Mir
“Stonehenge had an aura but it was also just stone. Then in the sixties, it became a great hedonistic, hippie, druid, rock-n-roll party site. There are amazing pictures of people up on the stones going wild and that's the image I recreated for my model of the project: full access to everyone. I even invented a Stonehenge soccer team that uses spaces between the stones as goals.” PeopleUseGoalSpacePartyTeamRocksProjectsModelsStonesAccessSoccerRock N RollSixtySiteHippieAurasSpace BetweenDruidsHedonisticSoccer TeamStonehenge Author:Aleksandra Mir
“Dutch beaches were known to me as man-made territories, as part of various land reclamation projects. But I was also interested in the media reality of the Moon landing. I wanted to use that event as a measure of time, to see what had happened in those thirty years - which happens to be my lifetime as well. I was born in 1967 and I remember seeing the Moon landing on TV when I was two. All those things were in play. Then it became a big production. It took five months to gather up the goodwill and make it happen.” MenYearsWellsMadeTwoPlayUseBigsRealityHappensWantedRememberBornKnownFiveSeeingHappenedLandMediaEventsTvsMonthsMoonProjectsLifetimeProductionsVariousBeachThirtyTerritoryMake It HappenGoodwillThirty YearsLandingDutchMoon LandingReclamation Author:Aleksandra Mir