A Local Conversation Between A Painting & A Song
There’s a conception that seems to return with every generation, that technology distances and even defeats the social aspect from our lives. Therefore I have decided to look at a classical model of social gathering, a cultural on in particular, in order to understand if I can find the characteristics of such a model in a contemporary example.
The Salons, which started popping up in Italy and France during the 14th century, were a mean to give a place for social and cultural people in which to meet and share their thoughts and ideas. Of course, these events opened their gates to a variety of arts, from painting to poetry, as well as philosophy and sociology. So these gatherings became a petri dish of creativity and open-mindedness on the one side and exclusivity and arrogance on the other, for those who visited the Salons were the elite, the artists and their patrons.
Today, these kinds of gatherings are less common, though not completely gone; you can still find meetings on the sanctity of art and spirit in private and governmental cultural centers, none the less they are not as popular. However, there is a “Salonic” apparition that implements the values of the Salon even better that the French Salon of the 16th century, and that is the digital sphere, or in our case, YouTube. The famous site is the largest open visual forum in the world, attracting millions of viewers and listeners daily, and like its European “predecessor” allows you to bring up anything on your mind. And that’s without exclusivity at all, anyone who wants can be educated, to experience something new or just to view its content, can. Furthermore lets you give your opinion on the content you watch, to engage in conversation with people from all over the world and discuss what’s on their mind.
In this exhibition I try to create a conceptual mix between the European Salon of old and the contemporary internet forum. A merging of images, sounds and opinions.
I invite you to walk by the artworks, listen to the songs and write down your thoughts.
– Matar Engel