K.R. About Interno (1992), a show that is remembered because of how it challenged the demands that come with showing in a gallery, the constrictions of the gallery that is, with the desire to show jewelry on the body.
R.P. I can tell the story. Do you want the story?
K.R. Sure.
R.P. I was overworked when I got that exhibition. I was burnt out, I was visiting Munich on my holiday and I got the show there. I came to a brand new gallery of Spektrum, not the one they have now, not the one they had before that, but before. Big, new, fresh space. Never an exhibition had been there. I said this is a virgin! It was the first show. We need boys to bring the sperm into the virgin I said. So I asked, can you offer me 15 pretty young boys? And they said, “nooo, no, you can do it in Amsterdam but you can’t do in Munich.” Ok then no show I said. And so it was from one moment, I mean entering the room it was clear and empty, clean, and I wanted to do something special. So we sent an invitation, it was a photo of a hook, nothing hanging, and the name, Interno. That was the invitation, it was spread out to everywhere. The people came into the gallery, only fifteen hooks were hanging on the wall, empty space, virgin, real virgin. Name of piece very beautifully engraved, and so after ten minutes the people were feeling annoyed, nothing was happening… and then the fifteen boys came in and everyone was shocked. And the fifteen boys were all in black jackets, white tee-shirts and one Interno brooch. The people were shocked, they were really shocked, they thought what now? And the boys knew the name of their piece and exactly where to stand. And then it took maybe five-six minutes before the audience was moving and so one guest said everybody let’s go! He broke the ice. So then the people went to have a look, and I had to inform the boys that they couldn’t interact with the people… I wanted them to look and not start chatting with them. But they were boys and they started to laugh because – the great thing, what I realized was that the jewelry was about communication and the communication is the closer you come the more communication there is, there is a barrier, you have a circle. But this work was about the inner part of the jewel, so it was about the hole, there is a hole for nothing, it’s empty hole because a brooch with a hole has no need, so it was a philosophical hole. And inside the piece you could see all kinds of details, so the people had to go very close, so you were very intimate and that is exactly what jewelry is about. So it was very funny, the boys stood there for one hour and then they took off their jackets and hung it on the hooks, and that was the exhibition for one month after. But that was the opening, for one hour. One hour and that was it.