MAON, Museum of 19th and 20th Century Art in Rende (CS)
May 23, 2015, 5:00 PM
Educational path in contemporary art
INTERVENTIONS:
Prof. MARIA ROSARIA ALBO
principal of the Classical High School "T. Campanella" of Reggio Calabria
Prof. GIUSEPPINA DE MARCO
teacher of History of Art at the Classical High School "T. Campanella" of Reggio Calabria
Prof. TONINO SICOLI
art critic and director of the MAON
Dr. ROBERTO SOTTILE
art critic and secretary of the MAON
How can we understand contemporary works of art if we continue to use the usual cognitive channels, trying to rationally grasp their meaning?
How can we appreciate the beauty of a burnt sack, a cut canvas, a rusty iron, subjected to the creative action of the artist?
At the beginning, the students asked the contemporary works of art: "What does it represent?". Some said: "I can do this too!". "And this is supposed to be a work of art?". To break down these banalities and prejudices about contemporary art and restore to it all the dignity it deserves, it was necessary to start a direct approach to the work and the museum environment.
Therefore, on December 20, 2014 we went to visit the exhibition "1920-1970. From the Second Futurism to Concrete Art" at the Museum of Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Art (MAON) in Rende (CS), directed by Tonino Sicoli, assisted by Roberto Sottile.
Before the visit, in class the students read some poems, written by the artists themselves present in the exhibition or by other poets, inspired by the works of contemporary art. Each student analyzed a poem and a work of art: from reading both and from knowing the artist's biography, each student was invited to propose a critical analysis of the visual text, letting themselves be guided by the suggestions and emotions suggested by the poetic text.
In the end, each student paired a piece of music, which could enhance the sensation aroused by the vision of the work of art and the reading of the poetic piece. The study of contemporary art allows us to grasp complex moods and feelings, but close to our sensitivity. The contemporary artist, after having refused to communicate through the usual cognitive channels, based on the rationality of thought, has taken infinite new paths, often twisted, to sing his pain of living, his difficult being in the world. Allowing himself to be guided by the emotion and the fury of the creative gesture, he has indicated one of the possible ways to face the existential crisis.
This is the didactic value of contemporaneity. MAON THE CULTURE THAT RETURNS!
