Dream On Baby: Artists and Their Childhood Memories
Gesine Borcherdt
Childhood never lets go of anyone. For many artists, it was the trigger for making art in the first place, and still is what drives them today.
For Dream On Baby, Gesine Borcherdt asked 33 artists, including Ai Weiwei, Marina Abramovic, Lynda Benglis, Vaginal Davis, Marcel Dzama, Mona Hatoum, Jeff Koons, Gregor Schneider, and Jordan Wolfson, about their memories of childhood. The result is an anthology of deeply personal, sometimes tragic, sometimes funny, often heartbreaking and always surprising stories. Accompanied by never-before-seen childhood photographs and drawings, this book sheds new light on what it means to make art.
“I think the book is really important – it’s important for parents to realize just how much of an effect they can have on their children when they are young.” — Jeff Koons
“Childhood is very important for an artist. The more of a fucked-up childhood you have, the better artist you get because you have something to work with.” — MARINA ABRAMOVIC
GESINE BORCHERDT (*1976, Braunschweig) is a Berlin-based curator, art critic and author for Art Review, Ursula, Welt am Sonntag, ART, and AD Germany. Recent exhibitions include Dream Baby Dream (2020) revolving around childhood fantasies and traumas, and Home Is Where You’re Happy (2023) at Haus Mödrath in Kerpen, Germany.