NO POSSESIONS DEPT: ARTIST POWER COUPLE ALEXANDER HACKE AND DANIELLE DePICCIOTTO TALK ABOUT WHY LIVING LIFE AS A NOMAD IS ESSENTIAL TO THEIR CREATIVE PROCESS


Art school is for frauds. Sure, you might’ve moved to Detroit afterwards or maybe you’re currently couch surfing your way to oblivion, but we dare you to embrace the life of an artist like these two. From being involved with heavily influential acts like Einsturzende Neubauten and Crime and The City Solution, to exhibiting their visual work all around the world, Alexander Hacke and Danielle DePicciotto explain what living for your art is all about. 

 

What made you decide to embrace the nomadic lifestyle?

 We felt we needed to widen our horizon. After moving to Berlin in 1987 from NYC, I have been living in Berlin ever since and Alexander was born in Berlin. We both felt that we needed new inspiration, new impressions, different cultures so we gave up everything we owned except for our instruments and books and started traveling. It has been incredibly inspiring and has enriched our life much more than we expected..

You’re both accomplished and prolific artists. Is it difficult to create when you’re never in one place for too long?

 It is possible to be creative even in very reduced working situations - in fact it is inspiring to have to think about what is really important. It helps being very focused. On the other hand some things need time and space (objects or film music) so we try and stop in some places for longer intervals every so often for a month or two.

 Is there any one place in the world that you found to be totally conducive to creating art?

 We like small places outside of metropolitan cities, that way one has the possibility of low rents for lots of space close to inspiring culture and art.

What are you working on right now?

 We are promoting our new album "Perseverantia" and doing an European tour - next year we will be touring in the US.