The Statement by the Artancestor 2006

I am the Artancestor – there is no doubt about it. He is like a second skin, which I put on, like a theatre role, whose libretto I have determined myself. But look, there is still far more sense in the character of the Artancestor.

He is transferable to other persons! Somebody else can play the role of the

Artancestor - however with exact instructions. The Artancestor is always faithfull to himself for he remains a sculpture and the creation act of this sculpture isn’t transferable. Then a situation is possible in which works of the Artancestor are presented by actors (woman, man, child or old man). It becomes quite insignificant whether or not somebody named Manfred Forschner happens to be present.

Forschner can co-operate with the Artancestor. He did it already very intensively in the past. However, compared with Forschner the Artancestor has some great advantages, which I would like to enumerate in the following:

Free from of the slavery of the very moment! Without any effort the Artancestor bridges thousands of years. It is not a falsification, if a picture of the Artancestor has the signature KA (Kunstahne in German: Artancestor) 12005 b. C. Dating becomes a subject of art itself. A creative wind, which blows through thousands of years. A real sharing of a culture: Which should not be confounded with the passing fashion of the present. That Artancestor represents a dignity, which mankind attains only by history.

Attached to no place! It would be an insubordinate restriction, to call the Artancestor a German. This freewheeling Artancestor is something quite different from an abounded Artist like Forschner. Even the restriction of Joseph Beuys (Beuys called himself an "Eurasian") does not apply to the Artancestor. He is everywhere at home and a foreigner at the same time. So, with his philanthropic and human-being-loving attitude, he can be just as well the Ancestor of African or American beings, humans and spirits. Why shouldn’t he be the last dead body (or survivor! This does not matter here.) of the legendary Atlantis?

The Artancestor isn’t determined to a certain sex or a certain age. He does not have to play, as Forschner does, the role of an older growing artist. He, the past-loaded, can start a completely young, a completely fresh Oeuvre at any time. He can express himself completely womanlike or extremely male-like. He is the perfect release from the restricting I.

We are not going to deny that there are significant similarities between Forschner and the Artancestor . Too surprising is their accordance, especially in the way of their drawings. But there are crucial differences in their ideas about the world. What the Artancestor may do, doesn’t have to be allowed to Forschner. Hans Gercke (former manager of the Heidelberger Kunstverein) called Forschner and the Artancestor a "strange pair", because he discovered that the relationship between the two doesn’t run peacefully. Both state to be the original and the other is their product. But Forschner can persist with good arguments that the Artancestor is his invention. This, however, is denied, by the Artancestor who states with just as good arguments that he already invented "Forschner" incredible long time ago. And be sure, it would now be quite wrong to follow the one or the other opinion.

Yes, the Artancestor is a hard fighter against imitations . Name him a work of art, even a great example from history, and the Artancestor will hurry to state that this comes from one of his works. Thus he claims that the ideas of the various Oeuvres of Forschner originally come from him: foldable pictures, moved-by-ascending-towers, electronic objects, road of art, society meal, town-portraits, art movement, all being important Oeuvres of Forschner and to be found in the internet under these designations, like “Artancestor” too, and under the German words: Klappbilder, Wandeltürme, Elektronische Objekte, Kunststraße, Gesellschaftessen, Stadtklappagen, Kunstbewegung and “Kunstahne”. And may be, the statement of the Ancestor is not wrong at all.

One simply must get accustomed to the fact that among the pictures of Forschner (signed with MF) there are sometimes pictures of the Ancestor, too (signed with KA). And there might be exhibitions, in which only pictures of the Artancestor are shown. And the Artancestor is present but Forschner is not. Perhaps Forschner sends a congratulation card for the exhibition or something else. And we ask: why should an ordinary human life be wasted with only one identity?

It requires only a minimum of effort and Forschner turns into Artancestor or vice versa. Why not? Then one of that “strange pair” could disappear forever? Forever? But of course not finally! The future is still lasting for a long time. But it remains a funny idea.

If Forschner is put in, the Artancestor comes out and of course the other way round. What actually existed first, the chicken or the egg?

This was written by the Artancestor

Read and approved by Manfred Forschner