"If I tell you I have to kill you with my laser vision"

Not just the artist but half of the global art world was present for the opening of Maurizio Cattelan’s and Gucci creative director Alessandro Michele’s exhibition „The Artist is Present“ at Yuz Museum, Shanghai. In an interview with Rita Vitorelli, Cattelan talks about self-expression, his kinship with Marina Abramović, and becoming god.

Interview Nicolas Party

Still life, portrait, landscape, abstraction – you work through all genres of painting in your murals, pictures, and installations. And we meet a lot of familiar acquaintances: David Hockney, Morandi, Picasso, Matisse, Botero, Félix Vallotton. Would you say that you’re sampling art history?