QUESTION TIME

STATEMENT OF INTENT 2.4

HIT THE GROUND RUNNING

FRAMEWORK CONVENTION ON CONVERSATION -Secretariat

CONVENTION-CADRE SUR LA CONVERSATION Secrétariat

For use of the media only.

PRESS RELEASE
Statement of Intent 2.4 from Question Time [QT], Copenhagen, Denmark. Question Time
hold daily summits somewhere in Copenhagen. After each summit a new statement of
intent is issued.

HIT THE GROUND RUNNING

Date: Wednesday 16th December 2009, 5.30pm

Attendees: Alex Eisenberg, David Berridge, Rachel Lois Clapham, Mary Paterson
Location: Café Zusammen
Minute Taker: Mary Paterson

I wasn’t impressed by it at all today, actually. We could talk about what an interview marathon is, if
nobody comes. It’s a beautiful space. I was very excited about that before I came but funnily enough,
now I’m here, it doesn’t seem that important. The fact that nobody came doesn’t affect the actual
gesture in time and space What is prohibition? I dunno. I just find that an interesting moment. The
rocking chair was particularly meditative. - The rocking chair was beautiful. Did you put your head on the
rest and just go with it? - Yeah. I could have stayed there forever. His silences were really good. He
was really struggling with the questions. She was into the big. We were small. So it was a total
ideological separation. What are we asking of people? Is our project really antagonistic? We’re
sticking to our guns and asking people to answer these questions, even if they don’t want to. Even
if you say oh you don’t have to, it’s totally loaded. Human beings want to please other human beings,
right? It’s a fucking inconvenience. One person asked me today, how does it feel, approaching
people? Because you’re really out on a limb? I think it gives you a license to do things that are not
commercial. It’s a negative economy. And it’s not sustainable. Somebody has paid, and that
somebody has an agenda. I don’t think they’re fully succeeding. I think they need to be more radical to
approach this. I’m gutted, that I haven’t been in a domestic situation, to cook for people. In London,
if you give your room to someone it’s not a political act. Before you came we talked about that a lot:
what the frame of ‘the art project’ is. That’s no more hideous that any of the others. -Yes it is. It
doesn’t have an obscurity built into it. There’s that whole going-with-the-moment thing, isn’t there?
She was a ‘young person’ – I’ve got a real problem with that - boring the tits off me. But, it came from a
really boring place. I made it sound interesting by accident, but really it was banal. I don’t think it
matters if someone answers the question wrong. I’m very particular with the people I interact with.
This has been much more challenging, but much more raw. Hit the ground running. Hit the ground
running.