Art. Culture. Future. Curator and Art Historian, @francesca_marcaccio_hitzeman dissects these topics with filigreed precision in the upcoming Qu & A with GAHSP.
We invite you to join #experienceGAHSP on July 7, where Curator, Art Historian, Writer and dear friend of GAHSP, Francesca Marcaccio Hintzeman answers some of the questions from #askGAHSP contributors. She touches on the topics of aesthetics, fame, archival practice and the direction where art is headed, illustrating her viewpoints with personal stories and past experiences both inspiring and thought-provoking
Art and history go hand in hand, complementing each other. With history documenting facts and numbers and art allowing us to understand the emotions people were experiencing at the time.
In her Qu and A with GAHSP, Francesca delves into the importance of reflecting the socio-political context in the arts. Discover more on 07/07/2020.
Now, art that upholds aesthetic values and ignores socio-political context fades in comparison with works that carry a strong message that reflects the spirit of the time. Decadence is beautiful, it is a tranquil sanctuary that helps to slow down, dissociate from the worries of the mundane and enjoy a simple story told by the dreamy watercolours. However, in the time of injustice ravishing our lands, creating art for art’s sake might seem tone-deaf for some. Others argue that art should not exclusively be a tool of activism. Balance is key. Heaving a peaceful mind is just as important as standing up for our peers, so the environment where the aesthetics is being explored in parallel with social and political contexts should provide enough space for representation and self-actualization.
Francesca believes that art is a response to the current affairs, with its aesthetics being, nowadays, ‘informed by the content’, and predicts that in the future it will most likely stay this way. The purely aesthetic direction of art was criticised by many, including Leo Tolstoy who stated that the art divorced from morality has no value. At the same time, Oscar Wilde, wholeheartedly believed that aestheticism was art in its zenith. Such claim, though, seems to be constantly losing relevance, since art is becoming less and less elitist.
Exhibition spaces evolve. Now, there is no pressing need to leave our homes to enjoy an installation or a show of a hot new performance artist, all of these can be viewed from a laptop screen. “If that’s the case, then why do we still have galleries?”, one might ask.
The way in which the artwork communicates is way too complex for a photo to capture. It communicates with its physicality, it merges with the ambiance of the gallery and creates experience that can’t be fully digitized. VR, however, creates an opportunity, where the artwork can exist on a physical plane and in “hyper-reality” simultaneously, according to Francesca.
Francesca also points out that the online tool has progressed from being an instrument of self-promotion to an extension of reality to the point where the boundaries between the two are blurred. The artists now have to develop a new set of skills that would help them to not only navigate through cyberspace, but also get noticed, acclaimed and, most importantly, stay relevant.