1. Beyond

I´m a fairly basic human, so I come at contemporary art from an experiential angle, as if it were a game, a riddle to solve or a reef to explore. Then, does this artwork or artist have something to say to me? Often, it takes a few minutes before I find the frequency that transmits a message. A visit to the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao every year or so has become an odd, surprisingly nourishing sort of pilgrimage. While there are many things I am not especially drawn to, the building itself is fascinating to experience.

Once inside, I make my way to the third floor, drawn to the room with three MASSIVE paintings by Anselm Kiefer. A brief, wordless conversation ensues. Bypassing intellect and analysis, they transmit something vital to me about our scale and sojourn in the cosmos. Kiefer grew up in post-war Germany, and it shaped the questing that drives his art. His fascination with the night sky reflects this. For him, “spirituality” is about “connecting with an older knowledge and trying to find continuity in the reasons why we search for heaven.”(1). Intuitively, I connect with the search. While seeing it on a small screen is certainly not the same experience, you can get an idea of his work from this image:

(1)  In Michael Auping. Anselm Kiefer: Heaven and Earth (New York: Prestel, 2005), p. 166.

2. Here 

“Art is not the object but what the object does to the world.”

After that, we went downstairs to what had set us on this particular journey:  the temporary exhibit In Real Life by Danish-Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson. Armed with face masks and hydrogel, we dove in. Melting glaciers, magical waterfalls, distorted reflections, orbs, mirrors, optical illusions. In one room, all colour was cancelled out by yellow light and we turned grey. In another, we were completely engulfed and disoriented in a fog of intense and changing colours, navigating the idea of a safe space.

Eliasson’s work also challenged us with the alarming state of environmental degradation. He wants his creations to do something to the world, to call us out of greyness and into the unsettling kaleidoscope of real life today. As a counterpoint to Keifer, who reaches beyond pain and devastation towards the transcendent, Eliasson invites us into the fragility and beauty of the planet we inhabit. They both speak to me, in my real life. The experience was enhanced in the company of our ten-year-old son, whose sense of wonder is keener than mine most days. He added ‘Olafur’ to the list of what he wants to be when he grows up. Eliasson gives a brief explanation of the exhibit (when it was at the Tate Modern) here.

Dan, August 2020

*images posted for non commercial purposes under fair use of copyright material in recommendation of the exhibits

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