In my work I am confronted with the news

You are, this year, the Chair of artistic creation in the France College. What was your first thought when you learned

It is not a new that I learned of the day to the next. I had been asked about a year and a half and I first refused. Before me, writers such as Roland Barthes or Jules Michelet were passed by there. That could add I didn't have the courage to face it. But my Publisher, José Alvarez, insisted that it was important that I do. On the other hand, I like challenges. It looks like because I've never been teacher. I have never given courses in the fine arts because I am not very psychologist and artists are sensitive.

What is the message that you want to convey in these sessions that address the dramatic title of "art will survive its ruins"

I had a lot of doubts. Talk about upcoming works Often, when talking about a table we want to achieve, it is no more. It is not a matter of superstition, not. Because the form comes first by the table, and then table tells an idea. The table is not an illustration of the idea. I also saw the difficulty of talking about things that have already been completed. So, in fact, I'll talk about the problems that we encounter when we want to talk about art. The relationship between art and words. It is my topic.

You create works that speak of the history and in particular of the second war of the Bible. Do you think that the artist has a mission, a role in society

The artist does not have a mission. Its role is not to change society. In contrast, indirectly, his duty - the word "role" I do not - is to create different links between things. The artist dissolved relationships in everyday life among the things to create another context. This new context gives a different point of view. After Duchamp, we look more at a pissotière in the same way. Is it not

You said about the history: "It is a stone quarry." Everyone takes what he wants. "Could apply the same principle to the work of art

Exactly. Each spectator sees a different thing. There is not a defined history. Each creates its history. Jules Michelet has created a history and others their. The story is a legend which is written by people who arrive later. The conquests of Alexander, for example, it is a great legend. Why was Alexander all these conquests To find the strings which had retained Prometheus to a mountain in the Caucasus. Alexander himself was linked to a legend, a myth. His conquest was a new vision of the world.

What is your report history that is doing is, in other words in the news

I read the newspaper. In French, but mostly in German, because it is my mother tongue. The German, this is my house. I also wrote my conferences for the France College in German. In my work, I am confronted with the news. The next year, a new Museum was inaugurated in Tel-Aviv with an exhibition of my work. Tel Aviv... It can not be more in the news.

You were born at the end of the war in Germany. The historical context of your birth and your countries have played an important role in your work. How the small Anselm realized that he was an artist

I always knew. When I was very small, I wanted to be Jésus. I wanted to the maximum. More, I wanted to be Pope. At that time, the mass was in latin. I still could recite you.

Then we see that there are commonalities between the Pope and the artist. The artists say things that are not true, not even true. The Church she also claims hardly imaginable things like virginity of Mary. Claim of impossible things, it is an artistic approach. A dada approach.

You said: "my biography is the biography of the Germany." You back yet in this country that you left for a long time. How do you see the Germany today

First of all, I am sad to observe that the French and the Germans no longer work as good harmony than in the past. As this was the case between Giscard d'Estaing and Schmidt, as was the case between Mitterrand and Kohl. For the European balance, it is a necessary thing. I'm suspicious of the German character, that is irrational and that can be dangerous as history has shown. The Germans, on the contrary of the French, do not have a consciousness of themselves. The French, they have in common the rites, a great revolution. The Germans never arrived to the revolution, for example. The Germans feel always lower. This is why they seek to compensate. I see even better outside today.

I am for Europe as a full State. I am for the United States of Europe. At the same time as the euro, should have been put in place a tax harmony at European level.

Feel you climb a xenophobic populism in Europe

Yes, unfortunately, it's again a little. Reflected in all discussions that are at the Netherlands in Switzerland in Germany.

I return to the US where I have an exhibition. Their strength is that they continue to accept a certain quota of immigrants. The latter work. They want to advance socially. Us, European, it wishes that foreigners assimilate while, obviously, the existence of a Chinatown or an Italian neighbourhood is a good principle.

You come to New York at the Gagosian Gallery exhibition called "the year next to Jerusalem". A phrase from the Haggadah, the book of the Jewish Passover. You frequently reference in your works in Jewish culture. Why

It is a part of my culture. Catholicism finds its origin in the Old Testament. Understand Judaism and Catholicism to understand our culture. I much studied Judaism in the 1980s, the books of Gershom Scholem, Isaac Luria, and I discovered things that helped me in my artistic work. Jewish mysticism is less dogmatisé than Catholicism.

You are working on a certain idea of chaos. Do you think that capitalism is in some respects to chaos

I ties capitalism to Alchemy. Three words define indeed Alchemy: putrefaction, dissolution and coagulation. Putrefaction: capital is a pure thing, no smell. Regardless of the origin of the money. Dissolution: This creates an arena where all links are possible. Money circulates continuously. This can lead to chaos. Coagulation: sometimes, capital freezes. When it does something with the money, that it is used to make roads, etc.

The crisis, this is where the money goes where it wants. We are still in the crisis. The problem is that the power is no longer visible. It is a manifestation of chaos. In the recent events in France, and reactions to events, for example, it saw no power to express themselves. When Ministers expressed, they were always reference external elements which prevented them from acting.

What do you think of the market of art today and its excesses

I am in no position to talk about the art market because I routinely banned my galleries of my work in fairs. Fairs as the Fiac, it is the destruction of the tables. A table must breathe, shine. The fair is just a place of Exchange. I refuse that my paintings are linked to this function.

The vision expressed by your creations is dark. Are you fundamentally pessimistic

I am not pessimistic, I am desperate. I do not see the meaning of life. Art gives a senseless sense. Can you tell me why you live Need to find it.

But you are family. What message switch you to your children

You are right. It is difficult. Simply, my children see me standing, work. They take what they want this.

You grant an important place to the dramatic, grandiose, in your work. Why

You know me, I do not work if it is not grandiose. I am subject to events I want to share. If you see more things in a grandiose manner, why live I am not ambition. The ambition is an unworthy motivation. I seek to discover what guidance the world as Einstein sought. Cannot find course.

You no longer live in the South of the France, in Barjac. You have a workshop in Paris in the Marais and Croissy, in the Paris region. That will become your workshop of the South with its 52 buildings and its kilometers of tunnels

I transferred from my workshop in Croissy near Paris everything of Barjac: 52 semi-trailers.