Aging & Wisdom Quote by Meredith Monk

Meredith Monk is describing a quiet revolt against the museum mindset: the idea that a performance is a fixed object you “get right” by reverse-engineering the past. Her admission lands with particular force because it comes from a composer whose work is often treated like sacred, delicate architecture. Instead, she frames memory as ballast. “Carrying around old information” isn’t wisdom here; it’s dead weight that crowds out the one thing performance actually trades in: presence.

The subtext is a critique of how recordings have trained artists and audiences alike to confuse documentation with truth. A recording freezes a moment, then seduces you into thinking that moment is the piece. Monk points to the psychological contortion this creates: trying to “get everything in” (accuracy, legacy, the canonized version of yourself) while also “be in the moment” (responsive, embodied, listening). Those two imperatives fight. One demands control; the other demands surrender.

Context matters: Monk’s practice sits at the crossroads of composition, voice, theater, and improvisation. Her work is built on breath, texture, and ritual-like attention - things that can be preserved but not fully captured. So the intent isn’t anti-discipline; it’s pro-liveness. She’s choosing an ethic where the piece is a living agreement between score, body, and room, not an act of self-impersonation.

It’s also an artist’s refusal to become her own tribute band, even when the culture begs for perfectly replicated “best-of” versions.