English

The power to educate or to seduce, to heal or to scare, to tame or to arouse, to unite or to divide...

From cave murals to digital pictures, images have always had a profound impact on human thought.

Hence, they’ve been often seen as carriers of ideas, used by the political or religious leadership in order to propagate ideologies and direct the masses towards one direction or the other.

Written in response to the Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art’s invitation to speak on the subject of art and worship, the following three short essays suggest possible readings of selected works by three contemporary artists that engage with significantly different concerns through their practice.

ελληνικά

BILL VIOLA, Dolorosa, 2000, Color video diptych on two freestanding vertical LCD flat panels framed and hinged together, 11 minute loop, 16 X 24 1/2 X 5 3/4 inches, Edition of 5

ελληνικά

Anonymous, The Plagues of Egypt, 1794, Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale

português

«The meaning of my work lays in the invisibility of my actions rather than in any representation in particular.

Actually no representation takes place other than a written testimony that I may produce later, once the action has ended.

The most difficult part is to decide when to put an end to the action.»

...

Notes and personal memories from a two day conference in Barcelona

español ελληνικά

español

In his 1917 lecture “Art and life”, the British art critic Roger Fry discusses the difference between historic interest in ancient art, which could be caused by the “lack of aesthetic sense”, and the aesthetic delight of modern art.