How we stopped looking at art for what it really was and why it matters.
It is difficult to define what art is or is not. While everyone is able to tell what he or she likes, it is much harder to define with words what is “art”. We have different images going through our head when we think of the word “art”: paintings, sculpture, music, expressiveness of the body such as in dance, theatre, architecture, films and other performing arts, writing. It is defined as the ensemble of human creative skills. But what is creative? Maybe it is a facility to come up in our mind with something that does not exist and being able to exteriorize it for other people to be able to experience it themselves. Through this experience the person acquires a different understanding of humanity, the world, enhances so to speak, allowing him to further his/her impact on the future of society.
The crisis I’m talking about is not so much about the Art itself. There are always philosophers, thinkers, or simply people wanting to express their inner self — therefore there is always new interesting art.
I am talking about how art is perceived, and how it influences people not in their daily life but also how it shapes ways of thinking and train of thoughts.
In the recent few years, I have been travelling a lot. I always make time to see the museums of the places I pass by. Unfortunately, I have noticed a worldwide phenomenon: most people are stopping to look at art for what it really is in order to favour an online “I was there” expressiveness.
People are stopping to look at art for what it really is in order to favour an online “I was there” expressiveness.
Let me explain. Art has a multitude of purpose. First used as a way to record history, then creative endeavours followed, along with adornments, and ways to enlighten the human mind, therefore contributing to mankind evolution. To truly experience a piece of art, one must immerse himself with the work, and try to understand what was the finality of the artist when he made the piece. Without this, the experience becomes at the very minimum, trivial, and remains of the post-modern realm: a spectacle. Don’t get me wrong. Some piece of art is meant to be entertainment. But for some others, and especially the classics of our time — the ones that made the human mind leap forward — they deserve proper attention to truly understand where we come from… and where we are going.
To truly experience a piece of art, one must immerse himself with the work, and try to understand what was the finality of the artist
Too often in too many museums around the world, people are not immersing themselves. They don’t reflect. They just pull out the iPhone and set it between them and the art piece, creating a barrier: they cannot properly connect. Nor are they in a mind space to do so. Instead of experiencing right there and now, they want to record this precious time to experience it later. But they fail to realise they might never experience this moment again. Because a picture is nothing like the real thing. They miss their one opportunity to truly connect with the artist.
So visiting the Versailles castle last week, I was both appalled and deeply saddened by the number of tourists coming to just snap a picture and move on the next room. A wall of mobile phones rose and was held up in the air like at a U2 concert. I am not even talking about proper etiquette and how to behave while in such a place. This would include observing the art in silence, or if talking is needed, to do so quietly so it does not encumber the experience of your neighbour, and going through a room clockwise — because, well that’s just common museum rules.
This phenomenon, I have observed it everywhere. In France, the Netherlands, and the USA.
In Israel last month, there was an exhibition everyone was talking about. A building was going to be demolished, and the city invited street artists to come in. Each room was allowed to an artist, and he/she could do whatever he wanted. Intrigued, I went to check it out. After waiting in line for about an hour and a half, I went in, squeezed in between families and their strollers. But my disappointment was dual: 1- most of the people there were iPhones and iPads in hand just rushing through rooms taking selfies (yes some people do that with their iPads), 2- the exhibition was made with “influencers”, and encouraging people to take selfies and hashtag. Some of the pieces themselves were designed in order for the viewer to take a picture of himself/herself in the piece. And finally, the art was not that compelling to me. At least Roland Barthes’s punctum did not seize me.
By inventing tools, our DNA stopped our bodies from evolving (our DNA still thinks we are in the jungle ), in the same way, we are preventing our mind from evolving by not asking ourselves questions triggered by art. We, as viewers and art consumers, are changing why art is being made in the first place by the way we look at it. And that is dangerous. Due to the rise of the digital age, and as well as the value that we give to our online presence, our offline presence is sometimes overlooked. So next time you go to the museum, remember to let you immerse: less screen time, more art time.
Less screen time, more art time.
In the meantime, I invite you to check out the work of one of my favourite artists of our time whose reflection is so relevant today: Philippe Safire who explores the transition to the digital age, the presence of the digital in our lives, and what it means to be human.
* Originally published in The Ascent.