Two very important men in my life. They wrote many books together, one of them being Capitalism and Schizophrenia. When I would come to Paris, I’d always have a room in Felix's apartment and used to go to his lectures. When I told him about my dream to make videos, he sent me to get a video camera from a university in Canada. Because of him I was able to start a group alongside Charles “Bobo” Shaw, Lester Bowie, Joe Bowie and others called “Human Art Ensemble,” which was named by Shaw. It was in a theater given to us by La Mama that we taught kids about music and the video equipment. This was when I came to New York in June 1968.
Felix was the first one to show my movies at Columbia University under his organization, CERFI, before they were at the Whitney Museum, along with my photography.
The Center for Institutional Studies, Research and Training (CERFI), was a research group dedicated to developing critical thinking on state bureaucracies, institutions, power, and political parties. They invited members with and without academic qualifications to develop their ideas in a variety of work groups. Although they were dissolved in 1976, their ideas were incredibly important to the development of the social sciences.
“I wish I had another life to write about your photography,” Deleuze had written to me in the last letter I received from him the day before he committed suicide.
I have been searching for the letter everywhere.
I miss them both so much and so often.
