There is a fantastic exhibition at the moment, going on in Amsterdam's Westerpark - one of those old factory buildings re-purposed into art space (the whole city if full of these examples, churches that are not churches, factories that are now cinemas, etc, etc) and its currently attraction nr.1 for everybody - it is the latest visual spectacle where famous art is projected on the walls, ceilings, floors and all over. I have heard about these happenings with work of Van Gogh but this particular exhibition is all about art of Austrian Gustav Klimt who is one of the first artists to bravely break away from classicist style and break into what today we call "modern art". I recall visiting world’s largest collection of Klimt’s paintings in Vienna (Belvedere palace) which was spectacular and it showed how much he changed from fairly beautiful and elegant classicist painter into completely different, equally dazzling, modern artists. This is where I have seen his world famous "The Kiss" standing in front of me and being delighted by the whole moment - what is not shown on the countless reproductions is that lovers stand in a bare, empty space and the moment of the kiss is the moment when flowers started blooming around them (or at least this is how I feel about it).
There is a fantastic exhibition at the moment, going on in Amsterdam's Westerpark - one of those old factory buildings re-purposed into art space (the whole city if full of these examples, churches that are not churches, factories that are now cinemas, etc, etc) and its currently attraction nr.1 for everybody - it is the latest visual spectacle where famous art is projected on the walls, ceilings, floors and all over. I have heard about these happenings with work of Van Gogh but this particular exhibition is all about art of Austrian Gustav Klimt who is one of the first artists to bravely break away from classicist style and break into what today we call "modern art". I recall visiting world’s largest collection of Klimt’s paintings in Vienna (Belvedere palace) which was spectacular and it showed how much he changed from fairly beautiful and elegant classicist painter into completely different, equally dazzling, modern artists. This is where I have seen his world famous "The Kiss" standing in front of me and being delighted by the whole moment - what is not shown on the countless reproductions is that lovers stand in a bare, empty space and the moment of the kiss is the moment when flowers started blooming around them (or at least this is how I feel about it).
Now, what is interesting is that this is after all not a museum but a public spectacle, almost like a circus. Created to attract a lot of visitors and sell a lots of tickets. Consequently, it attracts huge crowds that don't give a fig about Gustav Klimt or Vienna or music of Franz Lehár - I wouldn't go so far to call them a mob, but there was certainly a common element that could not stand still and lots of over-excited children running around, up and down the stairs, behaving like this is a huge playground. So that took a bit from the atmosphere, I was constantly aware of the crowd around me and wished that perhaps I have visited some other, less popular day. And even though the idea was phenomenal, I also understand the creators (designers?) played with pieces of paintings like in some giant kaleidoscope - the patterns were exciting but often they had nothing to do with Gustav Klimt himself. Its like Aliens came to planet Earth and decided to create exhibition of human art, but put everything topsy turvy since they don't understand human anatomy. I wonder is this a spectacle of the future times? Because if you emptied Viennese Belvedere palace and brought everything here, even the original art would not attract such audiences like this visual spectacle, smoke and mirrors. Very interesting idea.
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