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Willy
Billund, 2/27/94
I, the undersigned, Willy Bøtker, living at Grindstedvej
37, do hereby give Miss Gitte Villesen all rights to all remarks
I may make, as well as the dissemination of the same, without the
threat of untimely interjections from the undersigned, and without
the possibility of economical claims to the work, which it is herewith
understood to be an unconditionally exclusive right.
Willy Bøtker
Willy as DJ (video, duration 9 min.)
by Gitte Villesen
While interviewing
Willy the very first time, he said, among a lot of other things:
“... If there is something I really love to talk about, it
is cars, motorbikes and airplanes - though women and music is lovely
as well...” Since then he has often talked about his music.
In "Willy as DJ" I gave him one hour to play his favourite music
and from that I have edited the highlights into a 9 minute video.
In addition to the video, the project included a poster with everything
we said during that one hour written out word for word, and a cd
compilation of Willy’s musical selections. (The text from the
poster is partially reprinted in Index nr. 1, 1996, and in its full
length in “Make It Funky-Crossover Zwischen Musik, Pop, Avantgarde
und Kunst”, Oktagon, 1998)
Willy and his
neighbour
by Gitte Villesen
I didn’t come
up with or plan this work. I wanted a photo of Willy next to his
record collection, but it didn’t work out, as I hadn’t
told Willy that I would stop by. Usually I mail him a note telling
that I will visit him, for instance Thursday at 2 pm, and then when
I arrive he will be sitting ready at his table, saying “what
shall we do this time, chief?” When I came unexpected on this
warm Summer day, he was very concentrated on repairing his car.
I asked him if he would change into the same clothes he had been
wearing while playing his records. Instead, he just took off his
dirty smock, and stood in his shorts stripped to the waist, showing
his muscles and laughed. I never got the photo I came for, but I
decided that while I was there with some film in the camera, I might
as well do something, so I asked him if he would show me what it
was he was doing. First he showed me how he in no time can make
his living room into a workshop. Then we went outside where he started
to fix his car. A mud flap was loose, and as he said that that rattling
sound is the worst. During his work the neighbour passed by and
started discussing politics with Willy. The number of photos shown
has varied from exhibition to exhibition. I’ve presented combinations
of 4, 8, 9, 15 and 17 images. The photos have hung frame to frame,
though in slightly differing heights, so that the pictures “hop”
a little, up and down, in relation to each other, as pictures do
every now and then in comic books.
It was a wonderful period full of happiness and the loss of a lot
of money
by Gitte Villesen
Willy wrote up a
4 page list of all the cars he had owned. He divided each page up
into two columns. In the first column he wrote how many times he
had owned a car of the type which he listed in the second column.
Willy Bøtker
has an obsession with cars, and has been the owner of 530 - 630
cars. He has not had any of the cars for very long. What he’s
interested in is the search, the bargaining, and the feeling of
coming home with a new car. He examines the car from A to Z, makes
a test drive and sells it again. He has always had one car at a
time. The main material for the exhibition was a taped interview
with Willy, a small metal car, (that Willy made when he was learning
to be a flight technician), and a portfolio. The portfolio contained
a statement from Willy Bøtker, which stated that I have all
rights to the story of his life and can use it as I see fit. Further
more it contained a list also written by Willy of all the cars he
has owned, a letter from him and two newspaper articles. One from
1959 (about the real car he built, and his dreams of getting it
into production) and one from 1990 (headline: “A Dream Customer”)
. The taped interview was sorted and edited. 12 car radios each
played a theme from Willys story. You hear him talking about: -
the car dealers - the car deals - the types of cars - his work as
a flight technician - his mother and the other women in his life
- the car he built himself - the statement, recorded while he was
writing it - how he once got his Opel tuned for 10.000 DM - his
cars, motorbikes and other important subjects in his life, recorded
while he showed them to me - his photo albums - his first car -
his life style and betting on soccer - the “psyche”: how
you can be mentally attracted to a car and later realize you got
carried away Each theme was part sample and part narrative. The
tape recorders and the loudspeakers were placed in pairs at a distance
of 1.5 meters from each other. Standing in front of them, you could
concentrate on the individual story. The stories were followed by
pauses, and as both the pauses and the stories had different lengths,
the acoustic image was constantly changing. While working with him
he got so excited about the project that he wrote the statement
on his own initiative. His comment to the finished product was:
“See? It wasn’t wasted”. People used to tell him
over and over again that he had wasted his money on all those cars.
He never earned anything on the deals, and even though he has earned
a lot of money in his life, he never saved any of it, and never
invested in anything that would help them keep their value. His
personal attitude towards money is that when the last day of the
month has come, there should be 0 crowns left on his account. The
work was shown in Peter Lands private flat in 1994, during the show
I would be sitting there, offering the guests a cup of coffee and
answering questions.
Originally published
in: Wiener Secession Catalogue, Gitte Villesen, 1999ISBN 3-901926-08-9
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