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Peter
Saville on...
...the
Peter Saville brand
"The book and the show are the confirmation that I am now a
brand myself, that I am my own label now, so instead of people liking
things I did for others, they now like me. They were aware of Factory
Records covers, they liked the packaging of x,y and z, now they're
actually aware that it's Peter Saville. There are a lot of people
who look through the book and say 'I didn't realise you did that',
in fact they weren't even aware of who did it."
Saville's latest cover, Ilya's They Died For Beauty |
...becoming
an instituition
"By about 2000, we'd gone through the period that I was a big
thing and we'd also gone through the period where I was the last
big thing, and I was still there. If you haven't blown by the time
the spotlight comes back round again, they put you in the hall of
fame. People were able to see that what I'd done had been of significant
and lasting effect, and most of the other things that had been around
at the same time had come and gone. That's the point where I became
a thing, and I realised that I could now work for me, rather than
lose myself working for someone else."
...design
and art
"They are not the same thing. They really are about completely
different agendas, and I'm learning how different they are. Of course
if I make my own visual material, people say 'is this your art?'
and no it isn't. I don't really want to make my art. I just want
to be able to do and publish the things that I do and I like, but
making art... scary."
...Manchester
"There is an idea about Manchester that was last crystallised
by Factory and it's reverberating round contemporary Manchester
and it's not fading, but it's an echo, it's not the real thing.
I don't think they know what to do with the real thing. There's
an idea in its sense of progressive identity that isn't quite achieved
by anything. There's lots of new buildings going up and I haven't
seen a good one. There's hundreds of bars and cafés and they're
all post-Dry, post-Hacienda."
The Imperial War Museum North |
...the
new buildings
"The only remotely interesting one is the Libeskind and it's
the Imperial War Museum North, and there's a great quote, 'it's
three of the words I hate the most, Imperial, War, and Museum',
and that's the problem with it. Someone needs to wake up, look outside
at what's going on, and apply Manchester spirit to doing it."
...what
Manchester lost with the death of Factory
"Joy Division alone is amazing. Blue Monday is amazing. The
New Order story is amazing. The Mondays are amazing. The Hacienda
is amazing. Manchester had all of that and didn't get it. If Manchester
as a civic entity had been able to understand that something of
significant cultural importance had been happening here, then Factory
might still exist. But now, they're trying to find it. They're looking
around for it, wondering what it is.
...the
city's future
"Manchester's competition now is not Liverpool, is not Nottingham,
is not Bristol. Manchester's competition is Barcelona, Lyon, Rotterdam,
Bilbao, that's what it has to take on. The sights need to be raised.
It needs to look outside, look at the rest of the world. I did my
work by looking at the rest of the world. The spirit was made here,
but the standards were set by looking at the rest of the world.
Manchester United set their standards on the rest of the world,
and they're up there competing and that's what the city needs to
do."
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In
a nutshell...
- The
Peter Saville Show is at Urbis from Jan 23
to Apr 18. Admission is £5.
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do you want to do now?
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Peter
Saville talks about Manchester, his show and the future
Powerhouse
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