You spent a lifetime all around creativity. There happen to be many situations in which creativity and logic are very close to collide and – as far as I have known of this world – in most of the cases life tries to teach us that logic is more likely to win, that is the key to success. Your story may demonstrate that this is not always true. Have you ever felt the pressure of logic while you were doing what you did?
It is true that when logic and creativity collide a choice has to be made rather than taking the outcome, but I forced myself out of that equation. So, yes, I feel the pressure of logic like everybody else, but I also always rebel against what is being forced on me, so I don’t really have that problem.
You closed your TED speech by inviting people to start flying above the world, looking at it by a different perspective, and, I quote, «when you see mountains remember: mountains can be moved». Could it really work for anyone? And if anyone has this chance, how can we truly be saved by creativity? Is there actually a mysterious ingredient we would need to use your magic spell?
Regarding the first question, I would say yes, absolutely. You just have to define the mountain. For me, once in my life, it was to illegally put a wire between the two highest towers in the world – that’s a big mountain. But for someone else could be, for example, after a big injury at a leg to take a step without the cane – and that’s a big victory too. I think if you choose your mountain and start with a small one, you can see mountains can be moved and then you can focus on larger things. And creativity is a human invention, is breathing, is living, it’s just that people forget to create most of the time. So yes, certainly, you can be saved by creativity – even if I wouldn’t put it in those words, it sounds a bit like a religion. Without creativity there is no life! It would be great to remind people, starting from kids in school, that to create is just who we are and that if they want to enjoy life they have to make it the way they want it to be, inventing their own destiny every day. And yes, of course there are mysterious ingredients, it’s very hard to define what creativity is, also because it has to do with personal chemistry. It is fragile and very hard to catch, but you can feel if you are curving your shoulders and dragging your feet or waking in the morning and having all the day to do something amazing, unusual and pleasing – and for me this is the only way of living of course.
This is a personal curiosity. When you’re up in the air, walking through clouds and dreams, how’s music like? I suppose you’re not taking any device up there, but I also imagine that the sky isn’t always that silent – besides all the natural noises around. I wanted to know if there is some music, some melody you carry in your ears when you’re walking up there.
This is the very first time in my life this question is being asked. Well, I am not a musician, but I love music: it is my motor, it makes me do things. When I practice on the wire, that is at least three hours a day, I have a pot-pourri of sounds from all over the world, new, old, and this makes me walk. When I do a performance I always, always have music. Sometimes I even direct from the wire myself. And when it doesn’t happen, there is a music in my head or – as you very rightly said – maybe it’s in the sky: maybe it’s the music of silence or of nature and it empowers me.
I cannot help but seeing you as a storyteller – the only thing you’re probably missing is an instrument to accompany your words. I guess you imagined many times to have one day so many stories that a lot of people would have loved to hear. Did this ever encouraged you? Or anything you did was only for the present moment? And do you ever feel like a nowadays-Homer, a blind poet whose blindness opened him the doors to wonderful worlds not anyone can see?
Well, yes I thought about it, but it hasn’t moved me directly. Sure, storytelling is a very old human activity. Even in prehistory our ancestors would gather around the fire and mime the hunting they had done. Storytelling is great because it makes us imagine, which is a form of creation, and dream, another form of creation. I love storytelling and I tell stories all the time – I also went to storytelling festivals meeting storytellers from all over the world. I think it’s very important, it’s a natural branch we sometimes forget about. As far as blindness is concerned, I wouldn’t wish for anyone to lose one sense, but to alter your senses may be a very useful exercise. When you temporarily miss one of them, as sight, the others combine to replace the one that’s missing. Making this practical exercise took me to that blindness in a large sense that drove me insane and guides me through experiences I otherwise wouldn’t have.
One of the main components of your creations is precision. You always claimed to have paid the maximum attention to any detail regarding your missions. When you crossed the Twin Towers there was no element it didn’t occur to you it needed to be studied – even how working men were dressed. How important is it in life not to approximate and to know exactly in which direction the wind will blow?
It is not true that at the World Trade Center I knew everything, there were a lot of surprises and miracles the night we went there. Well, people often call me a madman of details, but I would have been a fool not to check every detail before going on that wire – there was my life on it! But at the same time, generally speaking, I am a person of extremes: I love and I hate, I do this and I do the opposite, and I think it’s kind of interesting the balance between extremes. So on the other hand, besides being a madman of details, I am completely open to what’s coming to me, incidents, accidents, chances – which translates for me into improvisation and following my intuition, another very important creative motor. I believe that following how you feel it’s always the best thing to do, it usually contains a lot of truth and strength. And while doing this, I couldn’t forget to listen to the wind – it would be ridicolous not to do that, since I walk in the sky. So, yes, I am a madman of details and I am welcoming what I have not planned. In that sense I contradict myself, and happily so.
Talking again about the crossing of the tower, one thing that has been said about your gesture is that it brought a lot of attention and affection to those buildings – as they weren’t really appreciated before. It can be said that you gave beauty to something that wasn’t really beautiful. Do you ever feel this way while juggling or walking on the wire, as if you were some sort of Midas turning things into gold?
The comparison isn’t really correct. If I felt the same while juggling, it would mean that people would hate juggling and that they could change their mind only after seeing me, but it really isn’t like that. As for the Towers instead, I was surprised to see that I humanized them by walking there and it was wonderful to have that compliment by art critics and politicians and people in the street, they were telling me «we didn’t really care about the Towers before, now we love them». I am very touched by people who are inspired – it is more than love – like a kid who says «oh I want to learn juggling», because he got that feeling by looking at you. The same is on the high wire. My case is already very different from those of other high wire-walkers as I didn’t grow up in a circus and I learned everything by myself. So it’s even more satisfying when people come to me and instead of saying «oh it’s great, bravo» they tell me «you touched me, you made me smile, there was something really beautiful that makes me feel great». I inspired them. For an artist I think it’s a very big compliment, way better than saying anything else. So yes, I bring beauty in an inspiring way, which is a trigger. To be inspired means you want to do something, it’s not just contemplation, it’s an action in the making and maybe another definition of creativity.