Art is important because it can make my hair stand on end. Constantin Brâncuşi once said: 'In art simplicity is not a goal, but by approaching the true meaning of things, and in spite of yourself, you arrive at simplicity.'
The importance of art for society is relative. Art can refer to the problems that a society faces and put them on the agenda.
Art can reveal wounds and perhaps heal some of them, but without being able to extinguish the 'world fire'. It can reinforce the social tissue, but also put a finger on the sensitive points.
Perhaps art links nature, religion, philosophy, culture and science; maybe even the past through the present with the future.
In any case, art is cross-border.
Art is:
- hair that stands on end,
- the most individual expression of the most individual emotion,
- to try to touch life with bare hands,
- one of the human rights,
- a barometer of time,
- a tissue strengthening agent,
- social development,
- past and present, but perhaps even more a vision of the future,
- the present, connected with the past, with the eyes on the skyline,
- deeply human, hard, warm, cold, striking, sublimating,
- ...
Tjen Heyligen, 2014