Madhouse

For more than three months we have been living in a collective proverbial madhouse in which certainties disappear and behaviour changes. What was once normal no longer seems so, and some abnormalities have become quite normal.

And sometimes not at all. A confusing episode in which it is difficult to determine behaviour and actions and in which nothing is predictable. As if 'normal' no longer exists. Looking at still fairly recent images of people at a festival or market, for example, we see people in groups close together. Embracing, shaking hands, kissing, it already evokes an almost physical shock reaction: "Don't, be careful anyway!".

We all retreat to a 'smaller' world and try to make the best of it. This is a different challenge for everyone. The artist who is used to working alone in his studio for hours a day faces different challenges than the artist who is used to working internationally and travelling a lot. For the vast majority of artists, however, earning a living has become more complicated. Some are fortunate enough to be able to claim support measures, but many are not.

Not just the artists, but the entire sector is being hit hard. After all, this is the second time in ten years that the art sector has ended up in a madhouse. To continue the analogy: new traumas have come on top of old, barely dealt with traumas, making treatment more difficult and the prospects more bleak. It is impossible to make a prognosis for a possible cure.

The 2010 cuts to the sector were - and still are - hugely undermining, but the current crisis seems more structural and wider in scope. It was recently calculated* that nearly 13% of the world's museums will be out of business after the lock-down will no longer open. In addition, international art fairs will become more local and can - just like galleries - accept fewer visitors. Structurally, fewer people will come into contact with art. And the usefulness of it will therefore have to be fought for ever harder.

In the meantime, the value of artists in times of transition is being written about here and there: the artists' way of thinking is valuable and gives a different perspective on reality. It is a good addition to the vision of the manager, director or scientist. Certainly. The question is, however, where we can continue to take these perspectives, so that they can also be understood in the future. What will happen in the longer term to the possibilities for showing the arts, the venues, the museums, the presentation institutions and the galleries? And apart from that, what happens to new talents? The students who have to build up their practice in this period, how do they develop their talent in a world of limited possibilities?

There are many concerns about the future and such concerns are often counterproductive. Because the future has become even more unpredictable, we do not know exactly which concerns should be given priority. What we do know is that, for many artists, there is even less certainty about the future than there usually is. It's maddening.

*by UNESCO and ICOM

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