The Ministry of Modern Entanglements
A retro-impossibilist art collective. Founded in East Berlin in the near future, we operate in reverse chronology, and will decompose into our essence in New York in 1959, on the eve of the recording of Miles Davis’ Kind of Blue.
An interview with Karl Krystal
Karl, can you define retro-impossibilism in a sentence?
No.
No? Why do you think that is?
Definitions have never interested me. If I define myself, I am saying, “I am…” but what if what I really mean is, “she goes” or “they come”? I might say, “we have” but you might want me to say, “it takes.” So what can I really expect you to understand, at the end of all things?
Is retro-impossibilism the end of all things?
I hope not.
Where do you stand on hope?
I have always said hope is like an orange. One day a language will be invented in which nothing rhymes with it, but all languages are ephemeral, and so for that reason is poetry. I could say, “she is wearing a red dress,” but who is “she”? It could be my mother or it could be my daughter. It is possible therefore that I am my own daughter? I think it’s very unlikely, don’t you?
Certainly.
Certainly you think think it’s possible?
I think it’s unlikely.
But all of this is unlikely. You, me, our meeting today, this infernal heat, the universe…
Does chance play a part?
Yes of course. We long for the illusion of certainty, but it is like a rabbit on a horse. My first wife was obsessed with oranges, and yet she hardly ate any fruit whatsoever, and had terrible teeth. I find it very curious.
Can we get back to the subject of art?
If we must.
Your art has been described as antithetical but also essential.
Yes.
To me sometimes it seems also exhaustive.
One day it could be. It’s a question of modularity really. The modularity of irrelevance, which is what occupies me these days.
Can you explain?
Take this pen for example. This pen has modularity. It could be used to write a love letter or it could be used to sign a death warrant. All things have modularity, except for art, by which I mean true art, or True Art. True Art occupies only the modularity of irrelevance, which is a kind of immortality.
You often talk about death.
Death is my distant cousin. It would be wrong for us to marry, even though in many countries it would technically be legal.
Are you closer to death because of your age?
I consider myself ageless.
But the New York Times…?
Yes I consider it a newspaper.
Many people do. The New York Times…
I don’t care for their opinions.
They have claimed…
I don’t care for their claims either.
I have one last question.
I’m afraid I think our time is up.
Oh, so it is.
Selected Works //
October Interventions
In October 1974, members of MoME approached members of the public on Pařížská in Central Prague. In whispered German, they presented their interlocutors with a radical dilemma: renounce their fear of death, or rewind their watches by seven minutes and 12 seconds – the longest time the collective’s founder was then able to hold his breath underwater. Those who wound their watches were given a drawing of a pineapple. Those who renounced their fears were rewarded with loud sudden applause. Members of the collective met each evening to render judgement on those who had complied with neither request. A piebald draft horse, generously loaned to the collective by a local farmer, was then instructed to forgive those whom the collective deemed to be of sufficient character. In total, 9 citizens wound their watches, 15 renounced their fears and all but 5 of the 4211 citizens who had not complied were forgiven by the horse.
Architectural Misdirectives
Our collective is self-governing and self-managing.
There is no I in ENTANGLEMENTS.
Just AEEEGLMNNNSTT.
Unpronounceable.
Indefinable.
Selected Works //
The Robber Barons
Our attention forms a virtual pyramid in which all ideas are sanctified.
This was the philosophy that guided 1998’s Robber Barons project: part retrospective, part celebration, part experiment in interactive fiction.
Children were asked to lie to their parents. Parents were asked to believe their lies. For three nights and three days, we called for all domesticated animals to be granted positions of authority in households, and for the eldest elected official in each municipality to be given a white rose wrapped in a sock.