"I want it to be tidy." "Are you filming the foreground?" "Is the foreground visible?" "No." "We could do something about this." "He can't see that." "Look through the camera and check, or else I will." "Why not use the flowers?" "I bought them only for this." "Anything to drink?" "Coke?" "Tea?" "A Coke, please." "This is just a suggestion:" "You start with me sitting like this..." "I'm reading, and you ask me:" ""What are you reading, Pushwagner?"" "And then I just do this." "That's the first scene." "Are the flowers in the frame?" "Yes, but I'll move them closer." "As they were bought for the occasion." "Go on." "What are you reading, Pushwagner?" "Ok." "That's funny." "Cool." "You asked me what I was reading, now it's only natural that you ask:" ""Why are you reading Lord Byron?" "He's not a painter."" "And then I answer: "Because you have to live like you read."" "You have to press on like a bulldozer to reveal the man behind the mask for future generations." "It would be metafilm." "It would comment on how you've made the film, goddammit." "Can you...?" "You can film, I'll hold the mike." "Okay." "Do I have to connect it somewhere?" "Let me see." "Is it so hard to understand what I'm saying?" "Stand there, capture both of them in a steady shot for five minutes." "Who controls the controller?" "Yes, and who's that right now?" "You." "And sometimes it's me." "No, that doesn't count." "What does he mean?" "No "buts"." "To have control would mean nothing if you didn't have your art." "Control has nothing to do with fantasy." "Art is fiction." "It's about telling a good lie." "It doesn't matter as long as it's entertaining." "The fun thing about it is not whether it's true or false." "It's the story itself." "All right." "You're controlling yourself, like before, when you held the scene." "I was controlling the controller, and that's you." "The film is about..." "Your dramatic idea is between you and me." "A film director and his object." "Now I understand !" "Which one of us has the upper hand?" "Yes!" "Exactly." "We'll see." "You walk behind me." "I'll walk five meters in front of you." "I would like to be in front as well." "Do as you please." "PUSHWAGNER IS TAKING LEGAL ACTION" "AGAINST FORMER COLLABORATOR MORTEN DREYER" "If you don't fight, you won't survive." "You need opposition." "If I can't see this process as a battering ram for breaking out into the world, then I've already experienced everything three times." "I'm starting to get fed up." "I don't feel an urge to avenge myself." "But my personal assistant betrayed me." "I signed a contract where I gave him right of ownership of my production in total." "Here one has to exclude an intentional decision from Pushwagner." "I need sang-froid" " I need to keep calm in agitating circumstances." "A discipline where the objective is not to forget oneself." "Something you do the very moment you open your mouth." "I have one question :" "I'll go to the hairdresser's tomorrow." "I'll get a very short cut, like a bank clerk." "And I'll show up in a black suit with black cufflinks." "You can come as you are." "But to show the court my respect?" "Very good." "I'll explain the topics behind every main question." "And I'll have sub-questions." "What does art mean to you?" "It means life or death, since my..." "In the last 40 years I've lived a vagrant life." "Between different social strata, but also in different rooms, i.e. other voices, geographically speaking." "During this period I've put other people second and lived like an eremite." "My companion has been my vision to gather my major works under one roof." "If I lose that dream, I'll snuff it." "We'll make an extra effort to..." "They're making a film about Pushwagner." "I was homeless for a few years," "I used to sleep in the shed, but now it's locked." "They wanted to film inside..." "This is Indie Film." "Have you got a key?" "Go ahead." "But it's locked." "The shed is locked." "Then you'll have to ask Stein." "How nice of you to cooperate." "From late '97 till the start of '99, I slept outside every fucking night, winter and summer." "Why did you end up in the street?" "My ex threw me out." "I had been married for 13 years." "While married to her we were always heading towards something." "But when she threw me out I was heading away, and that was something..." "When you get hit you say "ouch"." "Sound is like an anaesthetic." "That's why you say "ouch"." "All right." "I said "ouch" in a way that means death wish." "You understand?" "So you get a little..." "Thick-skinned." "You don't realize that unconsciously you're putting yourself in dangerous and life-threatening situations over and over again." "Is that why you started doing drugs as well?" "Of course." "It was the only way to stay awake at night in the winter." "Speed?" "You started using speed?" "Amphetamine?" "I won't deny it, but I have no recollection of it." "Here it was." "You slept here?" "This is the room I told you about." "But then it was..." "It's been changed." "It was filled with rubbish and rats." "It looked a lot worse back then." "This nice graffiti wasn't here back then." "Push, was it almost like you wanted to commit a slow suicide?" "It can appear that way when I look at it objectively." "And also when I signed the contract." "Yes, with Dreyer." "Well put." "You're not as thick as I thought, Benestad." "Enough, I'm getting cold." "How did you get out of that self-destructive period?" "Stefan picked me up from the gutter on a dark night." "On that night I had fallen asleep on Solli plass." "There was a heat outlet, so I could sleep outdoors." "How often did you sleep here?" "Very often." "In the winter as well?" "Yes, of course." "There was proper heating here." "But it wasn't warm enough for you to go to sleep." "And then Stefan picks me up, and with only one sentence he sends me to the stars." "STEFAN STRAY HAS BEEN PUSHWAGNER'S COLLABORATOR" "SINCE THE LATE 90'S" "Have you started already?" "Yes." "So you're recording?" "Yes." "Please welcome Pushwagner!" "The old and eccentric were also well represented." "Civilization without culture is absurd." "Soft City will be one of the main attractions during the art bienniale in Berlin." "It's a universal, social satire." "Pushwagner!" "Give us some more!" "It's said that you have to live rock 'n' roll in order to play it." "If you translate this into the world of visual art, then very few have lived their art like Pushwagner." "It's a great honor to give the Oslo City art award to Terje Brofos." "On behalf of the lads, thank you so much." "It's a great honor." "Listen, I would appreciate it if you could film me next to these venerable time-binding colleagues who have departed this life." "We can do that." "Really?" "That would be relevant." "Okay, Push." "Can you..." "Salute!" "Yes!" "Are you done?" "No." "One more." "Cum on !" "Okay, Push." "Salute, salute." "Are you done, Benestad?" "This is your father speaking." "CAUTION :" "SKULL CRUSHER" "Follow me." "Henry Miller says:" ""To paint is to love again."" "This is old. 1952." "Arne and I are boxing." "He knocked out my first tooth." "Thanks, Arne!" "But I got him afterwards in a race around the block." "This is the City Hall." "I found it impressive even before I was old enough to take the tram on my own." "Because the frigates or sloops were there." "They came from American warships anchored at Nesodden." "But these small warships came all the way in." "There they are!" "The warship anchored there, that's the sloop, and I'll live here." "This is also a significant childhood memory." "This is the small forest lake that was..." "It was very important to me to draw it well." "My dad bought a treated board so that I could paint it." "He understood that I had a need to express myself." "Without knowing what it was." "I wonder why?" "Yes!" "Because he..." "Here he is." "My father." "Fritjof Gustav Brofos." "Back then I tried to hide it from everybody except my father." "Because back then I associated it with handball, golf, badminton and other women's sports." "I was embarrassed." "Even when I went to the Academy of the Arts." "It was a dilemma passing myself off as an art student while trying to distract my surroundings in order to escape without anybody trying to stop me." "Escape what?" "Escape what?" "I didn't know." "Just to escape the boring everyday life I experienced after learning to walk and being baptized." "The villains in the cartoon are those who control our consciousness, our bodies, our sex life and our drinking and smoking habits." "Those who by forcible means control the way we live our lives." "And the hero is the one who breaks out of this of this maze." "My mother said :" ""You love Axel Jensen, but not me."" "Axel Jensen was a timely factor in making me feel more alive." "And the feeling was difficult to maintain when I was on my own." "He wanted to escape the role of the author and rather project his literary message through what he called pulp fiction, and by that he meant cartoons." "He was looking for an artist who could take part in such a literary and visual collaboration." "Here it is." "Axel Jensen, Hariton Pushwagner." ""Alfred" - a kind of alter-ego that we had in common." "A comic book without words;" "only pictures." "It's meant to be humoristic without being banal." "And you're supposed to feel familiar with motives like this one:" "Holmenkollen Ski Jump." "He wins, and the heroine gives him a medal." "We sat at a café, actually, just outside Stockholm." "In Vaxholm." "We had eaten dinner, Swedish meatballs with lingonberries." "And then we had this idea." "I buy this book, and draw everything from beginning to end, while we're sitting there for two, maybe three hours." "The relationship grew into something I remember as an expanding of the experience of being, of living." "In a way it was like being born again." "So I was always worried about what would become of me when Axel died." "In a world without him." "How are you doing with the picture, Push?" "How are you doing with the picture?" "Good." "I've got a nice studio." "In the street Dronningens gate by Kirkeristen." "An old weaponsmith's workshop from 1850." "Fantastic." "It's been slow this year, but now I'm starting to get into it." "I feel a stronger need than earlier, so to speak, to work with pictures independently." "That's good to hear." "Is it cold?" "I'm not feeling well." "I'm sorry." "Don't worry." "Are you feeling unwell?" "Yes." "Yes, I am." "What's happened?" "I'm getting old, that's all." "I'm getting ready to die." "No thanks." "It's a bit too early." "It's a bit early." "Are you starting to feel old, Push?" "It doesn't help to see myself in the mirror." "I just have to defrost a little, and then I'll be back on track." "Things are going downhill, they're not getting better." "But as long as Pushwagner pictures make people happy then I'm happy no matter what." "But do you feel like your job is done?" "No." "No, I don't." "That's the problem." "On the contrary." "I feel that I have lots of things to do but little time to do it, so to work more efficiently I have to depend on the people around me." "But it comes at a price." "To make art?" "Pardon?" "To make art?" "It comes at a price." "You get blue nails, you hurt yourself, you cry and you scream." "To get everything into place." "I see." "Maybe it's difficult to imagine it." "But there's a difference in living like life was real and deep like a thousand kisses." "No?" "I mean it." "That life becomes alive because it's changing all the time." "It does for me." "After one year I'm not in the same place that I was before when I was on a treadmill where nothing changed." "Only the fact that you got more and more bored with your woman." "That was the only thing changing, or the other way around." "But do you feel that you have had a good life?" "Nah." "Most of it..." "I regret everything except what's happening now." "I don't regret that." "It was an excited Terje Brofos, or Pushwagner, who arrived at the courthouse in Oslo." "What are your expectations today?" "I'm a pessimist." "But I'm optimistic about today." "Carpe diem." "Dreyer helped Pushwagner with money and food for many years until 1998." "The partnership ended and Pushwagner conveyed 2000 artworks to Dreyer." "It is this contract the artist now wants declared invalid." "Have you brought a lifesaver, Push?" "Vodka?" "When I woke up this morning I had a cup of tea, and then I got diarrhoea and stomach pains." "It doesn't matter what I drink, Earl Grey or whatever..." "This is the only stuff I..." "This is one of my few remaining pleasures, apart from fame, TV and media." "I don't go out dancing anymore, I don't live like that." "In that respect it feels like I've been through a mutation." "From being a physical human being to being a human being who fulfils his inner life." "Is that something new?" "Yes." "Look at this." "Here you find prints for quite an amount..." "Are there new things as well?" "Yes." ""Summit Meeting", you've seen it?" "Yes." "It's my only pleasure in life, really:" "The ability to create something." "It's like Byron says it:" ""When one subtracts from life eating, sleeping, drinking..." "How much remains?"" "What does he say?" ""The summer of a door mouse."" "From my experience, his words are true." "Push, your hair is a mess." "Fuck, yeah." "That ugly bird in the right corner, is it in the picture?" "Oh, that one." "It's so small." "Haven't we got something better?" "If you're going to include it?" "You're talking about this?" "Yes." "This is related to art;" "to how you crush color pigments." "Right, the colors." "All right." "Or we could have a quiver with brushes." "Yes, exactly." "Brushes would have been better." "We don't have any..." "Then let's get rid of this." "It's the director's decision." "That's all right." "A little camera?" "Yes, that's relevant." "That's fine." "Like this?" "Yes." "That's funny." "You can't see it." "It's too small." "There." "An object." "There you go." "Can you see it?" "Yes, I can see it." "Yes, because it's a tiny dramaturgical element." "Yes..." "Ok." "Here you are again, ready to squeeze the last drop out of the lemon." "I hope you'll let us squeeze you a little bit more." "Can you remove your sunglasses?" "No, but you can do it." "Thank you." "We were going to talk about "to live like you read"." "What's the point of all these words?" "Words are like viruses." "Not germs." "How do you live like you read if words are like viruses?" "Good question." "It means to know the difference between theory and practice." "To know the difference between objects and other statements or signals." "Can you explain that in an easier way?" "You shouldn't have spoken." "Look at me, Even." "I'm asking you :" "Do you love somebody?" "Yes." "Quite a lot of people." "Really?" "My girlfriend, my friends." "How is it possible to love her?" "Because she has got the X factor, at least for me." "She's got the X-factor." "Do you love her more than your mum?" "I love her in a different way." "Does anybody love you?" "I think so." "My mother, among others." "August?" "Why would he love you?" "Because I've known him since he was three years old." "He's not stupid, even if he has known you for that long." "Do you have to be stupid to have feelings?" "Why the fuck should anybody love you?" "Why should anybody love you..." "Do you feel pushed into a corner?" "Is this your way of getting even?" "No, I'm just kidding with you." "Can I offer you some?" "These are the best ones." "Thank you." "Let me show you the way out." "We'll see you again on Tuesday." "Yes, that's nice." "It's nice with a little continuity." "So the soup doesn't get too cold." "I feel like I've come to know you more during the evening." "But I can't say the same about him." "What is it you can't say?" "This evening I've come to know you a lot more, but not him!" "It's important that you find out how to outmaneuver me." "So that I lose the control..." "But it was better today." "Thank you." "See you later." "Bye, forever." "Love is the engine of survival." "Only a catastrophe can change the human heart." "I can't remember much of it." "I can understand that." "The doctor says your blood samples indicate kidney failure, but that it will change once you get sufficient fluid." "You were dehydrated and undernourished." "You've hardly been eating the last six weeks, only drinking." "Maybe I was afraid to eat my way out of the drunkenness." "What do you mean?" "When you drink a lot, and then eat, you lose your drunkenness." "Don't you?" "The effect?" "You lose the effect of it." "What are you saying?" "You lose the effect of the alcohol." "That was what you were worried about." "Why is it such a good thing to be drunk?" "It's not such a good thing." "But if it serves a purpose, if it serves a purpose, like I've said before, like when you've got butterflies in your stomach and you have a few drinks, then you calm down." "And other..." "How can I say this..." "And psychological circumstances can be neutralized." "You neutralize negative psychological circumstances by drinking." "There's a reason why the homeless are drinking." "It's a way of life that leads them to drink all the time, if they can." "They live under conditions that are hard to tolerate or accept when you are sober." "You can compare it with this trial, right?" "Are you tired?" "No, it's early morning." "It's early morning, and I'm a little grumpy..." "It takes me several hours to get in normal shape." "I'm at my best in the evening and in the afternoon." "During the morning I have to cleanse the system for phlegm..." "A lot of coughing, and not to mention spitting." "You sound like an old man." "Fuck, I want to smash your camera." "That's good." "Just do it." "I'm used to doing whatever suits me, but not always, like on this occasion," "I'm trying to control myself." "But, it annoys the hell out of me." "And maybe that's good?" "That you're filming me when I don't want you to." "It's good if you're satisfied, if you get something out of it." "Did you have a steam engine to play with as a kid?" "No." "Did you?" "No, but a friend of mine did." "Did you have a meccano kit?" "Yes." "Train set?" "Yes, I had meccanos and trains." "What about tin soldiers?" "No, but I had a Märklin train." "A motorbike with a side car that went round and round?" "No." "I did." "Why are you talking about this now?" "I see how you fiddle with that." "I was going to say that it gives me certain associations." "I thought it was better to ask if you fiddled with steam engines, meccanos, trains or tin soldiers, but to get to the point, you fiddled with something else, like you're fiddling with the camera." "While he's just standing there watching." "Here you are." "Thank you." "Let me pay..." "You get it for free." "I'll give you 10 kroner for free." "PUSHWAGNER WINS THE TRIAL AGAINST MORTEN DREYER ...and especially because it gives the public access to Pushwagner's art in the future." "The court has found reason to put emphasis on the imbalance between Pushwagner's former assistant and Pushwagner himself." "How did you react when you got the news this morning?" "I'm sure you can imagine it." "I was woken up by a roar from my collaborator." "I didn't fall out of bed, but I jumped up like a jack-in-the-box." "I was yelling hurrah, it felt almost like the 17th of May." "MORTEN DREYER WAIVES THE APPEAL" "AND REACHES A SETTLEMENT WITH PUSHWAGNER" "IN THE FUTURE THEY WILL COOPERATE" "IN MAKING PUSHWAGNER'S ART AVAILABLE TO THE PUBLIC" "I'm very pleased with the settlement, and I'm sure Brofos is pleased." "Have you got anything more to settle with Morten Dreyer now?" "No, but if he needs to borrow money, he can ask me." "Okay." "Thank you." "Can we take a walk around the block?" "I've got a vodka, a Bloody Mary, waiting for me over there." "Can you tell me what we're doing?" "Stefan can do it." "I have to focus on breathing with my stomach." "The exhibition opens in an hour." "You have to tell him." "I've already told you twice to stop nagging me." "It makes me aggressive." "It drains my energy." "I can't do it now." "I'll let you know when I'm ready." "The exhibition starts in an hour." "Can't you at least say that?" "No, I can't do it now." "Okay." "Hyped up about the exhibition?" "No." "You're allowed to react like that." "I'm not hyped up." "You're tired." "Yes, I am." "Go and change, Push." "You don't fucking decide over me!" "Can you explain what's happening?" "What did he ask me?" "Can you explain what's happening?" "Doesn't this explain it?" "It says Pushwagner, for fuck's sake!" "It doesn't feel right that you're not going to say anything." "Wish them welcome, or something." "No." "I'm not doing that." "You're not?" "You can all try to instruct me." "No, I'm just asking." "I just think that..." "Take a guess!" "Do you want me to say something?" "Say that on behalf of Pushwagner, who has his debut as a gallery owner..." "Pushwagner has asked me to welcome you to his own gallery." "It's the first time he shows his art in his very own gallery." "He is euphoric to have achieved one of his big dreams." "No!" "I'm proud and happy to be able to show these pictures which I am content with, to so many of you, including you." "I've become so popular that there are a lot of people here, and it makes me feel that I have to contribute to society." "Three cheers for..." "Hi !" "Mother Norway!" "Come on!" "Hurrah !" "Hurrah!" "Hurrah !" "Hurrah!" "The most difficult thing in life is maybe to see through yourself." "And to observe yourself." "There are more people who know Pushwagner as an artist, and who know his work, than people I know personally." "I, Pushwagner, am the artist." "Terje Brofos is the other part of me." "He is the one who goes to the loo and wipes his arse." "It's a polyphrenic situation, not schizophrenic, there are many personal tendencies that reign the ground." "One person writes out the cheque, another cashes it in." "But the cheque is not covered."