It was the time when sexuality was being questioned, and the conservative minds were being confronted... Paul McCarthy’s performances, for instance, out there rubbing food on naked bodies, humping trees, humping floors, grass... There were still prohibitions. When McCarthy’s Cultural Gothic—the sculpture of the father pushing his child towards the goat, saying “fuck the goat”—was still shocking. Now it’s much more legal. I like transgression.

Does art have to be transgressive?

Yes. Because art responds to truth. Art does not deal with the transmission of knowledge; it deals with truth, and truth wants to be revealed. A certain truth. It’s meant to appear right there. You look, look, look until you say “I see.” When you see, you stop looking. We don’t want to look at the goat-fucking anymore...

art: Wolfgang Tillmans, Mistress Formica, 1919