THE FOLLOWING CONVERSATION, which took place at Kerri Scharlin’s “salon” in New York on November 5, 2023, is published on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the series of six articles that Michelle Kuo, then chief editor of Artforum, commissioned from Thierry de Duve and published in 2013–14. They are the basis for “Don’t Shoot the Messenger,” the main section of de Duve’s new book, Duchamp’s Telegram: From Beaux-Arts to Art-in-General (Reaktion Books, 2023).
Underlying the Surrealist leader’s preoccupation with dreams and the unconscious was a very practical desire to change the world. Who’s to say he didn’t succeed?