27 - FEBRUARY - 2003

     Something has always attracted us to art, and that is the fact that it is a mystery. People can talk and reflect a lot, express thoughts and conclusions about art, but everybody is sure that however much we analyse a mystery, if it is authentic, it will always remain a mystery. I close my eyes and try to go back to the dawn of our origins as humans and I wonder, what gave us that touch that makes different from animals? Many found the answer in our smile, until they saw a chimpanzee smile, others found it in the creation of gadgets until a relative of the chimpanzee made a gadget to reach a banana ; we could even advance arguments closer to scientific reality, for example genetics, which would show humans and chimps to be the same except for the protein of an amino-acid on the speech gene ( the development of speech leads to intellectual development). This study in turn discredits the theory according to which humans have superior intelligence because we have five fingers ( the flexibility of the human thumb compared to a chimpanzee’s, which is merely prehensile, is what develops human intelligence at higher levels). Gradually we would find many impressive answers, but they would only explain an intellectual potential, not the quality of our humanity. Personally, I am convinced that the moment we became human was when we felt the need to make that simple gadget beautiful, with a particular form not connected to its practical utility, but to the pleasure of contemplating it and what this contemplation makes us feel. In this process something appeared which touches our soul, makes us conscious of our consciousness and enables us to observe ourselves and look for a spirit similar to ours in our surroundings. Now we begin to endow objects with ‘grace’, things are no longer simply what they are; they ‘signify’, and if not we give them ‘significance’. So I conclude that whatever Art is, it has significance for our spirit, our soul or our ‘humanity’ and furthermore this significance is very important.
     Could it be that this great importance led us, thousands of years ago, to make a connection between Beauty and the Divine ? Was Art so great that it could only be explained as a command of or tribute to God ? Divinity? Art? Two ‘human’ concepts. As an artist I would dare to make Art more important. Once human thought dared to say that God was dead, Art was not dead in spite of frequent attempts to kill it judging by artistic displays which appears from time to time.