"OLIVIER ZAHM — Your spectacular performances became iconic for the ’90s aesthetic, with the gathering of so many girls, connecting art, fashion, styling, photography, and an enigmatic investigation of feminine psychology. It seems to me not that you have changed, but that you have moved on. Haven’t you, since then, taken up sculpting in marble? Tell me, how did you move on? What have you been up to in the new century? VANESSA BEECROFT — Well, the performances really originated from my drawings. But the drawings themselves I did for myself only. I didn’t want to show them to anyone. I thought, back then, that a contemporary artist should not make drawings. Drawing was too academic to me. I was preoccupied with finding a form that wasn’t based on academic skills, like drawing. That’s what I wanted to achieve when I was young… Something beyond those drawings. OLIVIER ZAHM — You always refused to show the drawings. I have one, actually [laughs]. You gave me one of a girl. I remembered you were doing a lot, and they are very good… VANESSA BEECROFT — I was worried that they would not be accepted as contemporary. I was wrong. Now, after so many years, I think I should have pursued drawing more because probably I would have gotten somewhere else. I remember my ex-boyfriend, your friend Miltos Manetas [a Greek artist], saying it’s good that I didn’t draw because I was able to contain the impulse in other forms of art. OLIVIER ZAHM — Do you still draw? VANESSA BEECROFT — Well, recently I started again because I’m living in Los Angeles, and I’m having a bit of a peripheral moment, not traveling or participating so much in the art world. Also, I’m too busy with family life. But now that I’m here, in LA, I decided to start drawing again and started working on sculptures. But still, the whole thing is really an extension of performance. The girls are still the performers, and the performers are still kind of self-referential. The drawings are about the same subject; only the forms are different. The marbles are made in Italy, which also happened by chance." - Oliver Zahm, "In the skin of the artist"

DI PIERANTONIO, Giacinto, "Vanessa Beecroft Drawings and paintings. 1993-2007", Electa, 2007.

Sitography: ZAHM, Oliver, "Vanessa Beecroft. In the skin of the artist", Purple Magazine — S/S 2017 issue 27, www.purple.fr, 2017.
purple.fr/magazine/ss-2017-issue-27/vanessa-beecroft-2/