Do you think art can change the world? Has this happened for you?
I recently attended the Melbourne Arts Festival. Out of six dance and theatre performances, all from internationally acclaimed companies, one really stood out. Yet even this piece, which was relevant, contemporary, original and asked devastating questions about the extinction of the human race, didn’t really sink beneath skin level. I started to feel that we are stuck in a time of “problem focus,” where activism, media and a lot of the people out there who want to “make a difference” still think that pointing to the problem is the best way to make change happen. Yet we are all so scared now about all the problems we have created. I am starting to head away from creating art and wanting instead to create events, in a workshop kind of format, where people are no longer passively sitting and consuming the art. Instead they are creating together, feeling empowered and focusing on solutions, community and communication. What is the purpose of art then? Perhaps we should be satisfied with the Nietzschean idea of the Apollonian art – art that reconnects us with beauty in its highest sense, the healing potential of beauty, and allows us to connect with our higher selves, the selves that may be physically mired in the dirt of our problems but have our sights set on the bright light of the sun.
