The Power of the Arts!

We seek mental, physical and emotional wellbeing through alternative medicine, religious practices, extreme sports and all sorts of relaxing techniques, but the true potential and effect that the arts in general may have on our daily lives is not assessed. 

So it was fascinating to see the effects of Fanny Mickey and her coworkers activities in organizing the Theater Festival in Bogota last March - which highlighted the need and importance of entertainment as a breathing space and alternative activity in our ever so hectic 21st century. It was a feverish and enriching experience involving a multiplicity of “genres” and performances, of human talent, of improvised or controlled gestures, of modulated voices and sounds. The city and its inhabitants changed whilst it was on. Even the crime rate went down. To be successful forceful and punctual stimulus must steer the senses and impress the audience in a short span of time.

Even more demanding is the opera perhaps. The opera is perhaps even more demanding. It requires a masterful organization, voices, orchestra, scenario , synchronized and intertwined in one of the most inflexible artistic disciplines. One false note amidst hundreds of perfect sounds is the one that will be remembered by the spectator, dooming the artist’s reputation. In short, the power of sound must be assessed on a wider dimension - a non palpable emission that manages to stimulate and unchain emotions.

Dance is another complex spectacle. Choreography, music and physical dexterity resulting from  hours of training and discipline, takes shape under the creative geniuses such as Jerome Robbins, Martha Graham, Balanchine, Bob Fosse, Merce Cunningham to name just a few .

Film and animation, are not called “the Seventh Art” for no reason. Acting and an innovative and resourceful production team must excel in a large array of performances.

And last but not least, reading - possibly the most accessible forms of leisure – can be either a source of knowledge or the pleasurable recreation of a well written text.

But these results of the fruitful imagination and efforts of the creative mind are not always valued. And it is this sparkle of creativity that we need to focus on and to understand contemporary art. It imprints its originality. Even if this seems obvious, reflect on it.
It is the concept, the form and the conjunction of both that unchain an outstanding production.

Each needs sufficient power and weight as structural support. Technique is just a means and not an end in itself. In the urge to “adjust” and to fit into being “contemporary”, or “cutting edge” many artists just use technology and abuse its renderings. It is alike alike the first computerized consoles used in TV advertising,  where every object ended  up in a geometrical shape. Compare this with the moving image in the work of Nam June Paik, Fishli & Weiss, Bill Viola,  or the artists regrouped by the Magazine Interfunktionen (see exhibition at Biblioteca Luis Angel Arango on the Web) which have a real sense of all the media that the use.

This is not a critical exercise. It is however of utter importance as spontaneity, concept and execution, as ambivalent forces converge in the rendering of each work of art.

All of the above is an invitation to value the arts in their fullest dimension and magnitude, with all the senses being activated for its appreciation.

Last but not least, let us “rescue” the function of art for social wellbeing: public monuments resonate more with our concrete cities. More projects like Corazon Verde (web: Corazon Verde) - whose purpose and organization should be emulated.

In short, let us hope for  a more active inclusion and participation of art in our daily lives. Let this be a challenge for those artists that aspire to breach the confined spaces of private galleries.

I have highlighted just a few examples to emphasize the potential and stimulation power of the arts.  It seems therefore even more absurd that animosities between members and institutions of the art world persist in converting it into a battlefield rather than celebrate the power of creativity and creation.

Iris Ramler

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