Marlene Dumas

Non-traditional Relationships

Modern art is by its very nature a non-traditional activity.
Or rather it aims to expand our notions of the traditional and the normal.
Art is there to help us to see more and not less.
Laws are there to help us to love more and not less.
Laws should protect us from hatred and not from love.


Non-traditional Relationships. Written for and first published in Manifesta 10, The European Biennal of Contemporary Art (cat.), St Petersburg, 2014; and included in Marlene Dumas, Sweet Nothings. Notes and Texts, second edition (revised and expanded) Koenig Books London, 2014.