Category: Artists

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Great Petit Palais

The Petit Palais in Paris was built together with the Grand Palais for the World Exhibition in 1900. The great architecture of both buildings is complemented by great interiors. The Petit Palais has also been the home of donations to, as well as commissions by, the city of Paris since 1870. This means that a sizable collection of sculptures and paintings has accumulated since then. In spring 2025 the visit of these collections is free of charge and gives honor to the donors and artists exhibited. Over time the collections spread more than 2500 years of art history similar to the exhibition at the BNF gallery Mansard. In the 21st century the exhibition of a piece of art, which stems from the North of Syria reminds us that art is a treasure that can last even if the civilization has been lost or at interrupted for many centuries. This is an important aspect of taking a long term perspective on international politics and history. The breadth of the collection allows a stroll through art history in a splendid setting. Romanticism and impressionism receive a little bit of attention, but the architecture of the Petit Palais invites you to delve into lesser known territory. This, probably is the specific merit of the joint presentation of otherwise necessarily eclectic collections of donors across centuries.

(Image: Anse de chaudron Syrie du Nord 700 years before our time, Petit Palais Paris).

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Louvre empty

The Louvre in Paris is never empty. The paintings and splendid statues are there 24/24 and 7/7. If you want a quiet moment in front of the sculptures you have to choose a time beyond the normal visiting hours. In fact even a view from outside without queues is a pleasure and gives the impression of a huge empty space with just a few pieces of art. The lights add a nice touch to this special evening atmosphere. It is worth trying to catch a glimpse of the size of the building and the sculptures. Well, we should keep this a secret rather than spread the knowledge about such “Paris moments” in otherwise busy times and crowded places.

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Expo Disco

The combination of music and dance is a powerful, captivating experience. From folk dance traditions across the globe to ceremonial performances. In the past this combination has often related ro religious practices. Later manifestations include classical ballet, modern dance and disco music and dancing. History is full of examples that have been turned into mass culture. 

Rock on festivals and rap in clubs or hip hop outside have complemented this experience over the last few years. Each time the combination made the popular difference. Therefore the Disco exhibition in Paris just next to the Conservatoire de musique et de dance de Paris and in the building of the Paris Philharmonic is an appreciation and respect to the disco culture, popular mostly during the 70s and 80s. From a sociological perspective the throve by minorities for recognition of their cultural practices and diversity has been a driving force. Andrew Diamond has coined the expression of „disco at the intersection of minorities struggles“ (p.70 exhibition catalog). At the origin of the disco movement, there was the aftermath of the 60s power struggles. Black, women, gay and student protests asked for „all power to the people“. Music and dance were forming identities. Posing and showing off became part of disco. People created and lived their own utopia in glamorous lighting.

Image: Exhibition shop Paris Philharmonic 2025.

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Präludium Prélude

Learners of how to play the piano are likely to pass the composition of J. S. Bach entitled Präludium in German and Prélude in French. Maybe that influences the approach to the piece of music. The title sounds different in each language. It is interesting to follow the Präludium Prélude throughout the history of composition. The pianist Jan Lisiecki has just recorded and released a disc with Deutsche Grammophon following the historic evolution of this genre. The rather easy-going beginnings by Bach (see below for extract of first motive) have turned out to become rather complex preludes with subsequent composers. We may ask ourselves at this occasion: a prelude to what? Your own associations are welcome. In international politics we can observe strategic movements of countries and their military equipment as a prelude of war, but also of peace. Small aggressions may turn into wars. In philosophy Nietzsche praised the dawn (Morgenröte) and focused a lot on new beginnings. Composers might be the best forecasters of what is to come in the following years. Certainly the preludes have foreshadowed some of their later work. Nowadays, many LLMS in AI build on algorithms that predict what is the next word to write or task to do. Even in composition AI is moving ahead fast. Hence, we e are likely to study preludes much more for several reasons now.  

(Image: extract of first motive from J. S. Bach Präludium Nr 1)

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ravel up Ravel

To ravel up is a contranym. It can take a specific meaning and the opposite at the same time. Therefore, it is a perfect term to describe the composer, pianist and conductor Maurice Ravel. Born in 1875, he lived through great deceptions as aspiring pianist at the Conservatoire de Paris, but achieved glory through his famous compositions like the “Boléro” created for a ballet performance at the Paris Opera.
Previously, he had written several remarkable piano pieces, which were recently honored by the piano music magazine “Pianostreet”.  In an article with links to 5 performances of Ravel’s piano compositions you can ravel up in the emotional world or cosmos of Ravel. You may also unravel his compositional style marked in some of his most famous pieces with the variations of a single theme or motive. The “Sonatine” completed in 1907 might be considered as a precursor of later work (Boléro) as he refined his composition techniques to build, for example, on a single motive and develop a whole piece reworking and with reappearing incidences of the same motive.
Ravel himself appears as contranym, as he combined modern musical influences, like from jazz or innovative structures of musical compositions with the classical forms of composition. Listening to Maurice Ravel allows to better understand the transition from classical music to modern worlds of music. Thanks to “Pianostreet” we can follow these paths. For a biographical account the splendid movie “Boléro” takes you on an unraveling musical journey of Ravel.
(Image: Repainted piano in Berlin shopping center 2024)

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Biography Memorial

Some biographies take the form of a memorial. Marie-Luise Conen and Zdravko Kucinar have erected a memorial for the researcher, author and Social Demokrat “Milian Schömann” from the “Moselle” region near Traben-Trarbach and Lösnich. The biography reads like a narrative of crimes, which goes without punishment, before and during the Nazi-terror and the power grip in rural areas in the late 1920s and early 1930s. Milian Schömann achieved his university entry qualification A-levels in Traben-Trarbach before he moved on to study German literature and philosophy in Heidelberg, Bonn and Berlin.
His studies and political engagement were driven by a humanist approach and his letters and publications as literary critic as well as his contributions to philosophy are partly reproduced in this biographical account. This allows to follow in the footsteps of the curious and open-minded person of Jewish descent. As a contributor and speaker at meetings of SPD-members and associated political movements, he risked and eventually lost his life for his humanitarian convictions in 1942 near Belgrade.
It is the merit of Marie-Luise Conen and Zdravko Kucinar to let Milian Schömann live on in our time through the reprinting of some of his work, which is embedded in a  well-written historical account of the political and family setting at that time. The professional psychological training of Marie-Luise Conen helps to reproduce the anxious atmosphere Milian Schömann has lived through, albeit he remained a productive writer despite the economic hardship and living in exile.
This biography accomplishes in a rather unique way to enter into the mind and thinking of the author Milian following his very personal perspective on the “history of ideas” and inner call to action. Similar to the appreciation of Viktor Ullmann in the Jewish Museum in Berlin, where the music of the composer lives on after his death, the writings of Milian Schömann survived extinction, despite that he was murdered. After more than 80 years we still feel the loss of potential other contributions to philosophy and literary studies. The recognition extends to Milian’s academic and personal mentors Oskar Walzel and Arthur Liebert, important sources to understand the reasoning and motivation of Milian.
(Image: Extract from Marie-Luise Conen and Zdravko Kucinar (2024) Milian Schömann, Paulinus Verlag, Trier, p. 139)

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Beyond ART

Is there anything beyond art? Well, maybe there is. ART in German language is an abbreviation of “Allgemeine RelativitätsTheorie”. In other words the General theory of relativity developed by Albert Einstein is in its shortest form a one line mathematical expression, but with lots of equations included in the general statement, which grew out of his much earlier special theory of relativity. The textbook by Michael Ruhrländer provides a step by step approach to get to grips with the mathematics involved to reach a better understanding of what “ART” is about. Take your time to digest it and brush up a lot of maths beyond your A-level maths.
The abbreviation ART suggests a lint to art in popular understanding. Indeed, it needs able artists to show insights of ART to more people than the restricted scientific circles. An understanding of a 4-dimensional system of time-space has some more accessible features than waves of gravitation and the many puzzles that can be solved through ART.
Decades later quantification has build upon ART and takes us further into fabulous world of mathematical and physical imagination as well as real world applications.

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Democracy ART

The European Parliament co-sponsored a remarkable art exhibition in 2023 entitled „Art in Democracy“ The catalogue of the exhibition offers insights into the many preconditions of art. A democratic environment constitutes a non-negligible precondition for most of the works of art. Artists thrive within democracies. Many artists flee authoritarian regimes as their work environments rely on a real freedom of expression irrespective of the will and belief of ruling politicians.
Artists who do not flee in time for whatever reasons have suffered tremendously under Nazi terror in Germany. Authoritarian leaders don’t respect the various forms of expression by artists. Europe and the European Union provide safe havens for many artists to continue their careers in art. This has become a real value of our way of life. Many countries envy us in this respect. We take this for granted in the EU, but 70% of the world population endures authoritarian control. A reminder of this, from time to time, justifies a lot of expenses to support art and artists even beyond our borders.

The romantic setting of the image below is set against the surrealist open window (of opportunities) in an almost Magritte-style dreamland.
(Image: Rafal Olbinski, La Pologne dans l’UE, created for the occasion of adhesion to the EU)

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Digital Visions

Urban planning has been digitalized for a long time. 3D modeling of places and buildings including their interiors are state of the art. As urbanization is also about investment, speculation and anticipation, digital imaging has entered the public spheres in form of cover up of building sites behind fences and in form of large digital prints for information, curiosity and advertising purposes. The inner cities are frequently an avantgarde and microcosm of societal developments. Some dream of full or total flexibility for office spaces (see image below), others experience the inner cities as the spotlight of inequality in society. The best paid executives are catered for by the worst paid delivery personnel. The photographers of the Landesarchiv Berlin, Grönboldt and Wunstorf, brought together a documentary exhibition entitled „Pixel aus Beton“, pixel made of concrete.

With a bird‘s eye view they reveal past, present and future details of how Berlin is experienced and envisioned by investors, architects and people living through the seemingly endless construction going on in the city. The keywords list as part of the exhibition creates a link to scientific literature and to the TU Center for Metropolitan Studies. Photography and even more so digital photography offers a social science perspective to the digital images exhibited. Cities are data spinning areas and a formidable place for digital visuals and visions.

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Revealing masks

Masks can have multiple functions. During the Covid-19 pandemic from 2020 onwards we developed a hate-love relationship to wearing masks. Carnival traditions give wearing masks yet another touch. The painter James Ensor added other meanings to a mask. They do not disguise the person wearing them, but might make otherwise difficult to see features of a personality more visible. In a donation initiative and auction to raise funds to fight cancer Yves Delplace made the biggest contribution through his donation of the painting „Intrigue année 2024. Le preneur de selfie”  of which we represent only a partial extract below. In 2025 this depiction of 3 leaders of big countries has gained unexpected relevance. The US and Russia partying jointly while people still die on the  battlefield die to Russia‘s invasion of Ukraine has been turned into a cynic depiction. James Ensor and the surrealists in general would have appreciated this application of their way to deal with or foreshadow coming events. For some people you think it is about time to take off their masks or somebody to take it off. For others like Putin, the friendly looking mask has become apparently a frozen expression despite of the underlying ruthlessness.

Image taken at KBR Brussels 2024 exhibition of donations for auction and jury awards, by YvesDelplace.

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Time Concepts

Tell me about your concept of time. How do you define time? Answers to this question are likely to depend on your upbringing, affinity to a specific scientific discipline or epistemological belief(s). Aristotle defines time to be subordinate to the more basic principle of change. To understand change we need the concept of time. Two points in time define time, intermediate points are possible, which might be interpreted as a precursor of infinitesimally short spells of time. To explain change, Aristotle refers to his concept of time. Other concepts of time build on the notion of succession of events or sequences of events.
Clocks going round in circles have been used to show the progression of time independent of events. Beams of atoms later allowed for more precision of time keeping. The prevalent concept of time still is dominated by the idea of time as an arrow, usually depicted in some diagram resemblance based on the Cartesian coordinate system, but usually starting at 0 or a particular point in time as diagrams in economics.
Following on from the old concept of change and time, we still claim for causality in most day-to-day experiences or for social processes the link to a chronological progression of time. In statistical analyses building on time-stamped occurrences we may use event history analyses or stochastic differential equations to analyze (social) change depending on one or several (earlier) factors. Even the theory of deterministic chaos, which is applied in weather forecasts for example, arises from the sequence of point of measurements.
Mainly since Isaac Newton we cherish the notion of a universal time, which helps us to coordinate different locations on our planet with reference to the Greenwich mean time. Other concepts of time make use of infinity of time and how to deal with this. Life before, or life after death, are human constructs trying to make time understandable or at least manageable for us beyond our own living time. Depictions of time in the arts, paintings or music opens up yet another vast space of thinking about, as well as, experiencing time. We did have and still do have a great time thinking about time.

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Antique Drama

Modern drama and performances have their roots in antique drama. This is evident in literature from the time and some rare artefacts that have survived until today. Masks and statues give an amazing impression of the high standards already attained more than 2.000 years ago.
Many performances have been linked to mystical rituals and religious ceremonies, but beyond those instances there has also been a depiction and interpretation of for example the Greek mythology. Dionysos inspired many artists and people of that time and philosophers equally found inspiration in performances and the representations in temples, arenas and market places. The treasures of the BNF in Paris, galerie Mazarin and rooms next to it like “la salle des colonnes” (Image below), allow to travel back in time into an antique setting in the room of columns.
Taking the world as horizon is the title of the rotating exhibition from the treasures of the BNF. The beginnings of philosophy and major milestones in arts and mysticism across the world figure in this exhibition. In the spacious setting it feels like travelling back in time for a while, just to build on these foundations.

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Endless Questions

The winner of the Niépce prize 2024 has been awarded to Anne-Lise Broyer and features prominently at the BNF in Paris. The exhibition of the professional photographer reflects by way of photographic “still images” on the historic fate of the mediterranean basin. Each and every image has no answers, but keeps posing questions. In the long alley of the BNF in honor of Julien Cain, we walk through history of more than 2 thousand years in photographs up until today and even beyond. Let’s keep asking the most fundamental questions again and again. The exhibition entitled “Est-ce-là que l’on habitait ?” invites us to ask ourselves about the historic origins of so-called Western culture in the mediterranean basin. Ancient philosophy and arts are the foundations even of our current ideas of democracy and freedom.
However, what has become of this in the 21st century? The original statue of freedom has suffered badly. What has become of the freedom of mobility at a time of barbed wire fences rising between countries that influences each other over thousands of years? How about nature? How about religion and freedom of expression? Where is progress? Where is regression?
For centuries we have sought answers in libraries starting from the Library of Alexandria to the treasures of art and knowledge of today across the world. Let’s make more intensive use of these treasures where we shall find answers to most of our questions of the past, to the past and of future interest.

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Hugo intergenerational

Well, this entry is not about Hugo Boss, whose name is probably known to more people worldwide nowadays than the French poet and writer Victor Hugo. The latter Hugo, however, is likely to be known to more generations to come than the former one. In his 19 years of exile with his family he had the unique chance to get to know his grand children a bit closer, which was rather unusual for the late 19th century. The romantic poet was charmed to an extent that he could help it, but to express himself in a longer poem. „L‘art d’être grand-père“ (The art of being grandfather)“. Victor Hugo experienced the death of own children and his wife before and his grandchildren surely gave him reason to believe in a more joyful tomorrow. Comments on this poem mention the idealised vision of the romantic regard on children and even more so on his own grandchildren. « Leur front tourné vers nous nous éclaire… … Ils trébuchent, encore ivre du paradis. » 

We forget all earthly quarrels just listening to the soothing sound like children’s rhymes. Hugo is a master of all literary classes and he ensured that his intergenerational legacy would be part of this.  (Image: Maison Victor Hugo, Paris, writing desk ro stand in front of)

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Text to Image

Long before everybody started to discuss Artificial Intelligence, which in many applications takes the form of transformation of a textual prompt into an Image, Photographers have had literature or quotations in their mind that shaped their images. This was a kind of poetic imagery not always easy to recognize. The exhibition in the „Institut de France“, Bibliothèques Mazarine (LINK), with photographs by Nicolas Fève (LINK) offfers a great insight into this way to conceive of an image and its realization through photography. Exposing the sources of inspiration as well as the photo is like adding textual citations to an image in a much more inspirational and transforming manner than AI is doing these days in 2025. 

Text to image is only one out of the many ways texts might guide imagination, but it is a powerful and gripping one. The history of literature is full of other forms like videos based on novels, comic strips to make classic texts in Latin more accessible. As we shall ask AI products like texts and images to cite their sources and honor authorship, photography as art and science might enhance the literary experience by adding citations to an image. This has the additional advantage that more people will follow up on the sources of inspiration.

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Apocalyptic Collection

As long as humanity exists we had to deal with the experience of apocalyptic horrors. First, mankind could not make sense of natural disasters. Second, after we understood many of the disastrous events on earth and even most cosmological events, we proceeded to create our own apocalyptic disasters. 

One thousand years of unimaginable suffering and destruction are the subject of a unique exhibition at the BNF entitled Apocalypse. The documents start with biblical representations of it and continues throughout the centuries. The artists‘ attempts to depict and characterize the Shoa is part of the exhibition. The atomic bomb is another issue of the 20th century. In the 21st century artists try to move beyond the different forms of the apocalypse. The collection of various kinds of dealing with apocalypses constitutes itself an apocalyptic experience. We still have to go a long way to come close to understanding what drives disasters and what the role of mankind is on this way to seemingly endless destruction. The apocalyptic experiences remind us to keep asking some fundamental questions.  (Image: Exhibition Apocalypse at BNF Paris, Center Piece by Otobong Nkanga, Unearthed)

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Artists Intergenerational

Generations influence each other. That’s a very simple general statement. Biographies, auto-biographies and life course research have all established sometimes more, sometimes less direct influences between the generations. The exhibition “A partir d’elle. Artists and their Mother“, curated by Julie Héraut, combines literature, photo and video that speak to the rather complex psychological or sociological issue. Visits in 2025 available at Stichting A, Brussels.
The starting point of the inquiry into the nature of photography by Roland Barth is chosen like an investigation into a crime. Sophie Létourneau had written an essay which proposes to read the original text by Barthes from this perspective. The artists in the exhibition seem to follow this process of asking themselves what their relationship to their mother is like and how to represent this in an artistic form.
A life course perspective, which takes images or videos with 10 or about 20 years difference, offers a kind of analytical as well as artificialized vision of the evolution of the artists’ relationships with their mother. Realistic images with a morphing backwards from old to young is presented next to images confronting young and old next to each other. “Words don’t come easy to me” could be the title of one of the videos where a young artist has a particularly hard time to talk to his/her mother.
Just after the celebrating Franz Kafka last year and his famous “Letter to my father”, the inquiry into artists and their mothers complements the analytical and artistic vision and interpretations of the child and parent intergenerational relationship.

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AI Images

The creation of images using any AI system is fast and easy. Many people have tested the systems and experimented with the more or less explicit prompting needed for LLMs to come up with several suggestions. Through the use of AI in the creation of images you are indirectly become your own curator of these creations as you choose among many suggestions of AI for the same prompt. The next step in the process of these artifacts it to assemble several ones and submit your selection of images to a gallery for an exhibition. If you have a coherent approach or a specifically interesting creative idea you might get selected in a competition to show your AI assisted images in a gallery with a reputation to  exhibit photography.  The Brussels Photo Festival (2025) presented the submissions to a call for AI images with a broad range of AI assisted imagery. The focus of this project was on „historical events and figures“. In situations where images are absent such a newly created imagery might be helpful in re-creating narratives about undocumented wars or conflicts. Speculative fiction about other historical options or „roads not taken “ have found their way into museums of history even. Decolonizing imagery is an interesting aspect to get a grip on another way to view historical evolutions. Projecting biological growth processes into the future with pervasive bio-engineering allows is to imagine potential future scenarios. As AI in biology, pharmacy and nutrition is only about to rake off, the AI artists play an interesting role of new avantgarde in the 21st century before we shall be submerged by AI images on all social media platforms. (Image taken at Hangar.art 2025)

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Korean Uprisings

With the recent Korean uprising against the imposition of martial law the world has witnessed a successful defense of democratic rule in South Korea. International politics has quickly moved on to other areas of the world where people’s struggle to obtain or sustain the freedom to vote and the freedom of expression.
However, the Korean history of uprisings goes back a least as far as the beginning of the Cold War period with the separation in 2 Koreas. The 1980 uprising of student protests in South Korea was extinguished with brutal force and mass killings. Can literature heal the wounds of uprisings? Only the best of literature can. The Korean female author and poet Han Kang (Nobel laureate 2024) has accomplished this. In the novel 소년이 온다 “Human acts” (English title), “Celui qui revient” (French), ”Menschenwerk” (German) the Gwangju Uprising 1980 is the historic backdrop against which the loss of human dignity during dictatorships is narrated. Han Kang manages to depict the empathy of family members who are confronted with the brutality of the military forces. It is tough on readers as they become the witnesses of the violence described as such and the sorrow of the whole social environment of the victims.
The Nobel Prize for literature 2024 honors the “world literature” aspect of Han Kang’s writings over many years. Many prizes have been allocated for representative writers (80+ % were men) of a country. The different titles of professional translators chosen for this novel reveal the potential to link to very different national narratives and connections to national memory of uprisings. Translating literature from different cultures can be challenging as readers frequently want the narratives somehow to relate to their own “endured” experiences. World literature, just like world history, goes beyond this and takes the reader by the hand and broadens emotional and human horizons.
(Image: Gallery Lee Bouwens, Brussels, exposed Jungjin Lee Voice #02, Voice #26 in 2025, inkjet pigment prints, Jungjin Lee)

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Existence as Eggsistence

Artists have their own ways of hallucinating. They don’t need an AI to generate ideas beyond the normal, even allowing for 2 standard deviations off the usual. As a result of the thorny question about your existence, Ram Katzir came up with the impressive statement about his „eggsistence“ being subjected to a squeezed experience. Ever increasing shares of the labor force would subscribe to this statement about the modern workplace. Each turn of the screw risks to crack up the egg‘s shell. Rather focus on the egg, try to get a grip on the screw. There are thousands if not millions who crack up under the excessive pressure of economic and political circumstances. The new platforms of food, grocery and parcel delivery at home have become the latest example of AI-assisted and algorithmicly managed screws. What is driving your eggsistence. It is about time to  ask fundamental questions again. (Image: Eggsistence, by Ram Katzir 2021 in Brussels, Galilas Collection Belgium)

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Ukraine Chanson

The Russian war in Ukraine is not limited to the military killings. From the earliest period in 2014 already Russia initiated a war on Ukraine culture and Ukrainian cultural heritage. Therefore, it is great to witness the efforts by Ukrainian musicians not only to retrieve their rich heritage for example in the field of chansons, but to develop traditional songs with new formats. Jazzy versions of children’s songs have been sung with an admirable soft voice by singer and composer Viktoria Leléka and her band.
Most people might think of children’s songs as an insignificant niche of music. The importance of singing songs for children and babies is a scientifically well documented finding. Early bonds are created and a sense of belonging and comfort, particularly during difficult times of life. Comforting music is also an intergenerational issue. Transmission of emotions and values across generations is the very fabric of societies. The recent album “Kolysanky” and the song “Ne Zhal” is a great reminder that it is the children that count not the, maybe, broken cradle.
During the war time with many absent fathers, chansons can bridge the emotional hardships. The movie “The Chorist” had demonstrated the power of children songs for children, their parents and all generations involved. Chansons have a much longer “half-time of life” than war.
From an unknown French composer the cradle song “Fais dodo Colin …” and Brahm’s Wiegenlied are classics many people in Europe will remember from their childhood and still transmit them today. Great news that Ukraine continues this tradition with new, innovative adaptations of their own lively cultural heritage.
(Image: extract of lyrics Ne Zhal’, from webpage)

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Covid Literature

In 2025 it about time to evaluate the medium term impact of the Covid-19 crisis in Europe and world. The various lockdowns caused unexpected “spare time” or time in isolation. Some otherwise very busy persons embarked on literary projects during these months. Most of the outcomes have now been published. Most authors would not label their writings as “Covid literature”, since they do not deal with the Covid pandemic in any sense. However, only due to the additional time resources, and maybe writing as a creative coping mechanism, some persons became and dared to become authors eventually.
For some isolation from the usual work context was a lonesome experience, others realized literary projects. Camille Paulhan (edition Sombres Torrents) for example used freed up time to write “Couper à travers les ronces” published in 2021. Her short stories, like narrative clips, range from introspection to memorable encounters with art works and artists. As an expert on “perishable art” Camille Paulhan is particularly sensitive to the “fleeting moments” of encounters and maybe of life itself. The Covid-pandemic has certainly reminded us on the increased risks to our existence during a pandemic. The literature originating during these months and years might reveal specific virtues only ex post.
You might still be able to buy a copy at the publisher. The bookshop and gallery Yvon Lambert (online retrieved on 2025-1-20) says sold out, but shows several pages online. Although books may become a perishable product, some copies will survive due to the efforts of fans of perishable art and moments.

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Ukraine Poets

Difficult times have a long history in Ukraine. However, literature and poetry have flourished since the Ukrainian independence from the Soviet domination in 1991. Periods of hunger under Stalin, Nazi crimes in the 2nd World War, Tschernobyl radiation, Annexation of Crimea and now Russian war on Ukrainian territories, the endurance of hardship is part of Ukrainian culture and society. This has created a strength of resistance and resilience which is exemplary for all countries. The democratic countries stand firmly on Ukraine‘s side and support not only military defense efforts, but also artists and poets in such difficult times.
A collection of translated poems from Ukrainian into English has been published in 2027/2018, showing the horrors of the large scale war that was to come a few years later. In fact from the Ukrainian perspective the annexation of Crimea was the first war initiated by Russia although the Western world did not want to see this as a brutal aggression, which it was. The poems in the anthology are available online for everyone to read and understand that war changes personalities. Suddenly, dying of old age becomes a blessing as many young soldiers and people die on the battlefields (Died of Old Age, by Lyuba Yakimchuk translation by Anatoly Kudryavitsky) .
7 years after the translations where published the poems have kept their sorrow and the reminder for us to continue our support for Ukraine‘s fight for democracy, independence and freedom of speech and the arts. (Image: Front: from War Diaries, Brussels 2025, shown in Gallery of Katarzyna Napiorkowska).

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Artists networking

Creating a network between rather idiosyncratic artists is no easy task. The more they develop a unique style separate from other painters mixing with other artists can be a challenge because you might find yourself in the position to continually defend your new style. Therefore, building a network of artists that understands the concept or emotion that drives you is a great advantage. In the catalog of the Caillebotte exhibition in the Musée d’Orsay Paris the map of living and working spaces of Caillebotte and his artists’ friends like Claude Monet is a great way to demonstrate the degree of networking and creative spaces that propelled the impressionist movement. The galleries and greater exhibitions of the impressionists took place in the vicinity of the established art institutions, but were not admitted into the traditional exhibition centers like the Louvre. The map from the catalog provides insights into the cognitive map of Paris which Caillebotte had in mind at his time. Artists see cities as opportunity spaces which facilitate or impede the creative processes.

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Drawing Drafts

The exhibition “Drafts – From Rubens to Khnopff” at the MRBAB offers an art historian’s view on the role of drafts in the creation of art across centuries. You will not be surprised to discover that drafts played and play a crucial role in creative works. With a restriction to drawings, paintings and sculptures, the exhibition highlights the “creative gesture” originating in a sketch of a detail of a body, a face, the body, compositions of forms or perspectives on space. In some instances, infrared reflectographic camera technology or similar techniques were used to reveal the so-called underdrawing of a painting to allow the comparison of a draft with the “finished” or “published” version as an oil painting. The time span across centuries allows to stress the importance of drafts and drawing rather than the spontaneous creation of a unique piece of art. The 20th and 21st century saw this process of creation challenges by several artists and performative versions of art. The basic creative process, however, remains an important pedagogical access to better understand art and its creation.
The curators of the exhibition Bücken and Maréchal (MRBAB) encourage visitors to use pencils and paper to try out the technique of pencilling or just to try to a sketch of something of interest. This certainly contributes to let the message and encouragement to create yourself sink in to the memories of visitors. All in all a very modern view on old and not so old masters.
(Image: Triple view of Jacques Jordeans, Allegory of fertility of the earth, 1623-25 MRBAB).

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Science and Fiction

We associate with science and fiction the extrapolation of scientific trends into some futuristic settings. The most striking examples of science fiction in novels or video use some scientific findings (dinosaurs, genetic engineering) and project this knowledge into another fictional setting. The usual personal relationships follow rather predictable plots of romance, deception, violence or war.
The novel “Wellness” (Hill 2024) is also a kind of science fiction as it is based on social science evidence and builds its fictional plot firmly embedded into the social and psychological research. The attachment of references (and defending the print of those in translation) underlines the commitment to write a new type of “social science fiction”.
In this innovative style the scientific basis of psychology and sociology is then extrapolated into a fictional arrangement. Research on subjective well-being with the U-shaped form over the life course and the extrapolation of the placebo effect, which is instrumentalized for a business, derive from key topics in the social sciences. In fact, the novel and the background scientific literature in the bibliography could well figure in a social science course at university entry level. These readings constitute a 360-degree-view on personal development and social structures. Of course, social sciences move on and add new evidence on an almost daily basis, but the selection and arrangement of the characters create an innovative social science fiction, without some unrealistic technological extrapolation.
It strangely feels like we are already part of this social science fiction (compare “Klara and the sun” by Ishiguro) as politicians advocate and campaign with placebo topics in elections and project us into some more happy past or future.
The social science fiction of Nathan Hill resembles for me the great utopian novel by George Orwell “1984” published in 1948. A title “2032” instead of “Wellness” could have worked quite well, as the first edition of Nathan Hill’s social science fiction was published already in 2023. (Image: Extract of: Lo Spagnolo, 1665-1747, Hecuba makes Polymnestor blind, MRBAB).

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Wellness Sickness

There appears to be some kind of a relationship between the 2 conepts of wellness and sickness. Some would argue that the more sick you are, the more you seek wellness. Sickness seems to be the precursor of wellness for many people. Wellbeing or happiness are even higher order concepts which are only indirectly related to wellness. In an almost 600 pages science and fiction novel, Nathan Hill (Link) constructs his plot based on the psychological research on the placebo effect. With a sufficient aura around a pseudo-medication administered in a wellness clinic, the clients or some figure near the 50% random positive effects are treated with at least no negative side effects. On page 152 we find the more explicit description of how to induce a placebo effect in participants. Context, expectations, faith, symbols, metaphors and story are all ingredients for a placebo effect to work. Sometmes without knowing we receive a treatment in our childhood or throughout the life course that we work on using placebo effects to overcome them. The novel by Hill (2024) is a well researched psychological as well as sociological fiction including a bibliography, which reminds us „If you cling too hard to what you want to see, you miss what’s really there.“ (p. 496).

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Zerreissprobe

The term „Zerreissprobe“ has been chosen by the curator team of the Neue Nationalgalerie In Berlin for the Retrospective of „Art between politics and society“ in the years 1945-2000. In this time period after the 2nd World War until the other „fin du siècle“ the politics of creating a new world order, the cold war and the liberalization of societies had profound impacts on art as well. The positioning of art in the dynamic context and conflicts of these decades is quite well reflected in the title of the exhibition. The English title „extreme tension“ suggests somehow that these years were rather extreme compared to ?, probably today? Although on the territory of Ukraine we witness a hot war rather than a cold war initiated by Putin‘s Russian imperial illusions. The cited work of Günter Brus „Zerreissprobe“ is translated as „stress test“. And maybe, this translation characterizes the post war period even better as these years are a forerunner of what happened after 2000. We continue to be put to tests in politics and societal developments. Accomplishments from the last century are put to crude tests again. Solidarity of people and nations are under pressure to demonstrate their reliability under extreme tension or stress. Art throughout the 5 decades of the last century was a precursor of stress tests for politicians and challenged society in its basic understandings. The comments on the notice board next to the exhibition show the themes of tension in the 2020s. Tensions in families and partnerships, often more extreme around christmas trees, have taken center stage for younger visitors of the exhibition. Sociological research has observed such trends and coined this societal phenomenon „individualization“.  Art embedded in society seems to be part of that evolution as well. Art movements are less visible as collective movements. Artists appear more individualistic or ideosyncratic nowadays, just less inclined to be part of a defining larger group. If artists are no longer avantgarde but rather followers of societal trends, the whole „raison d‘être“ of art changes as well. We are likely to witness yet another „ Zerreissprobe“. Cuts to art and culture budgets constitute an additional „ Zerreissprobe“ in the original sense of the word and of art between politics and society in 2024/2025.

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Art Physics

Art is a matter of perspectives. In physics the change of perspectives and even theories about perspectives using optical instruments or illusions enlightens our understanding of the universe. 2D or 3D perspectives by V. Vasarely add yet another dimension through the oppositional hanging facing the Hollow Mirror Objects (convex and concave) by A. Luther (see images below). The curators succeeded in putting both art works with their incorporation of physical principles in an enriching dialogue. Art speaks to us in many languages. In more general terms, there is an underexploited aspect of exposing art. Rather than focusing on a single artist or school of artists in particular, exhibitions may focus on the interrelationships and new ways of combining or communicating images. This is human intelligence. Artificial intelligence will do this without prejudice and my own private collection of images of art works as a similar fountain of innovation as well. (Image Exhibition Neue Nationalgalerie Berlin 2024-12).

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Films of Stills

The exhibition of multimedia artist Nan Goldin at the Neue Nationalgalerie (New National Gallery) in Berlin presents a retrospective of her work using slideshows of stills including soundtracks (Image below). The topics and narratives range from autobiographical work on own traumatic experiences to works entitled „memory lost“. The sequences of stills are a form to deal with trauma through art like overcoming the suicide of a family member. Drug or sexual dependency enter the stills and it becomes clear that stillness is part of the coping mechanism she employs. It is hard to watch, sit still and endure the films of stills. However, there is a kind of therapeutic experience to be gained in coping with trauma through art. The installation in several tents increases the reclusive atmosphere and entering the still rooms invites is, somehow including a warning of what kind of chilling experience we are up to throughout the exhibition. The almost therapeutic experience needs to be handled with care and a visit with friends or family is highly recommended in my view. Community and communication are key to coping with these experiences and even still images contribute to building resilience.