My sister refuses to visit Kiasma, because according to her, she doesn't like "contemporary art". I'm using quotation marks because I think the concept is in itself interesting and definitely not very clear. Does she hate it all? Does she have an idea of what all "contemporary art" is like?
There is some "contemporary art" that I don't like. We visited an international art exhibition in Kassel - Documenta - in 2007 with my husband (art historian with specialisation in contemporary art)and there was one painter who I really hated, Juan Davila. I won't torture you by posting photos here. Interesting is that the format was very traditional - oil on canvas. The paintings seemed to radiate hatred and violence, sexual violence and just blood and gore. Don't take your children to an exhibition of his works.
On the beautiful side, we were in New York in 2008 and visited MoMA and PS1 with an exhibition of my current absolute favourite artist, Olafur Eliasson. Where sometimes "contemporary art" makes people frown and look serious, entering the room with the mirror on the roof, or the round room with lighted wall seemed to make people smile and be happy. Most of the work had to do with light, but he had also intricate little things (husband decided to call them polygonic sculptures) that delighted me, and a wall full of photos from the rugged shores of Iceland (one might be cliche, a whole wall full made it really interesting).
Of course, Eliasson manages also to cause distress in a true artistic tradition. He built (well, not alone) several waterfalls in the East River in NYC, which made people worry about the salt water's impact on plants... I didn't see the big waterfalls, but I saw a small upside-down waterfall in his exhibition. The sound of water and the strange direction it was flowing in made me happy.
Recommended for adults, children and teenagers: Olafur Eliasson.
Seems to me that many people who, according to themselves, "don't like contemporary art" in fact don't like art. Any of it.
ReplyDeletei love the "enjoying contemporary art" pic!
ReplyDeletethe concept of "contemporary art" is almost too obscure, but to me it seems that people tend to consider "contemporary art" as something annoyingly ambiguous and/or something "i've could have done myself, so why do i see it in a museum?". heavy assumptions!
To the degree that "contemporary art" is a specialized and exclusionary way for a self-selected elite to congratulate themselves, it is worthy of oppobrium.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, the "I don't get it, so it's crap" crowd is just on the other side of the same coin with the "I don't get it, so it must be brilliant" crowd.
The main question is who's fooling who.
Mmm... Manpace, I think I tried to make the point that there isn't really a homogenic "contemporary art" - and obviously, there isn't a homogenic group of watchers. And I feel it's a pity if people won't watch it just because it's not over 50 years old and they think contemporary art is always something they'd hate. Of course it's also a pity if you are not allowed to hate a piece og art because you have to show you understand art or something.
ReplyDeleteYou should take what you love and hate what you hate - and some of it could be elitistic, and some of it definitely not. Check out Helsinki Complaints choir - how would that be elitistic?
http://www.complaintschoir.org/