German artists' colony attracts international residents

For the past 20 years, the Solitude Palace - a grand Rococo villa on a wooded hill outside Stuttgart - has served as a temporary home to hundreds of artists from across the world who have been specially chosen to live and work in the Solitude Palace Academy. Its director, Jean-Baptiste Joly, is intent on creating not just an artists' colony, but a spirit that inspires.

Deutsche Welle: What sparked the idea of creating an artists' colony in the Solitude Castle 20 years ago?

Jean-Baptiste Joly: Why does an artist accept to leave the place where he or she lives to go to another part of the world? This can be political reasons, economic reasons, or also getting closer to something which is interesting to him or her. My idea was that we have to create a "Solitude spirit."

How would you describe this "Solitude spirit"?

Having the impression of being part of a system which is rather artistic and private than institutional and organized. And to be international is a part of it. To be interdisciplinary is also a part of it.

You bring artists from across the world here: writers, musicians, painters, architects. Do you think a writer can learn from a musician and vice versa?

I would put it more generally: that the questions posed by all the artists from all the disciplines, the questions posed by scientists and the questions posed by people from the economy, are the same. People are asking questions about gender, death and life, about what an image is and what it means when we speak about an iconic term in modern society.

I'm not sure if an artist can learn from another discipline, but he can learn that the questions he has in mind are the same in all the disciplines today - for all those who are questioning our world, questioning humanity. And it is essential to hear and to exchange with people who are dealing with the same questions from a totally different point of view and with a totally different tool of thinking and expressing themselves.

Do you think that the needs and attitudes of artists coming here have changed in the last two decades?

Within the palace walls, artists can enjoy a relaxed lifestyle

Totally - and that's the reason why the institution totally changed. In the meantime, artists know better why they want to come here - because they know our reputation, and our reputation is based on the fact that we are adapting ourselves to the process. What they need is to slow down.

Human activities in the world, through all the modern technologies, have been accelerating immensely in the last 20 years - but it's impossible to compress the time of production of art. So when artists want to make good art, they need a place where they can really slow down. And they have to slow down much more than they did 20 years ago. So, for me, this is the major change - the relationship with time.

Interview: Peggy Graham (ew)
Editor: Kate Bowen