The Hausberger Diptych
Have you had any apples today?
No. Although we both like apples they do not appear on our food palette all too often.
How come the film is called Apples and Colors — is it hinting at something serpent? The visuals and the rhythm feels very sober and sympathetic.
We were surrounded by apples and lots of colors, the colors of nature and the colors of paint. It was the title the director chose, and, just like colors — the idea stained.
When pressing play the viewer is transformed to a slice of earth where it feels like reality is put on pause — what does this portrayal illustrate to you, and how come you decided to welcome an audience into a place so personal?
It’s the place where we grew up, flourished. It's just our natural habitat and so when deciding the location with Massimiliano this place just made the most sense. The only sense of sense.
Working with video is also a new medium to the two of you. At what part of the process did Massimiliano Bomba enter the picture, or rather, film?
We spoke a while before actually deciding to actually create something together, and since Massimiliano seemed to have a particular idea we went along with it. For us it was more or less doing what we usually do at a place we call our home, a portrait of us. Perhaps his portrait of us, the painted and the painter together.
Even though you always work in collaboration, the span of that is usually exclusively to the tandem of two of you, how was it to let another artist into your practice?
Very Intimate. Yet we totally trusted Massimiliano. It wasn't difficult but an interesting space to be in.
Early on in the film you tell us that “the place does not have a name,” inevitably it hints at the ethos flowing through your creativity as a whole; no need to label, to explain, even to speak - the two of you, as artists, already function in symbiosis, could you tell us about that practice?
Words are often just not enough, they hardly express everything, if anything, there is to express. At least that is how we see it. That’s probably why we like to express ourselves with lines, brushstrokes or photographs. Perhaps why we were keeping it short.
How early on did it develop? How many works are scratched because one feels like the other messed it up?
From childhood onwards. It’s hard to say how many works are scratched, it depends on how one defines messing up and we two could argue about that endlessly, haha.
Have you ever tried to finish a painting by oneself, or do you paint as a means to come even closer to each other?
Yes but that usually feels as if the work is missing something. As for coming close, we are close enough already. We definitely don’t need to work together to become closer. We work together because for whatever reason it feels like it is the thing we have to do. But of course, we inevitably become closer through this process, but its not so much striving for a destination in our relationship as much as an essential part of the work.
Your motives are determinate yet sophisticated, foremost centered around the female figure which you not only have experience with though your own body but also by spending time with your other - could they be considered a love letter to each other?
We were always drawn to the female figure and Inevitably those figures are probably influenced by spending so much time with each other since we are born. But they are not love letters to each other, no, we don’t need that as there is and will always be unconditional love between us, no matter what.
Is she – your twin– a means to envelop and develop yourself as an individual?
No, we very much like to do our work together. Developing as an individual happens more outside our work process.
Is there any way this feeling or process could be put into words?
Unfortunately, not with words.
