A Bridge That Must Be Rebuilt from Both Sides

Author: Tomás Barceló

The most serious problem facing the world of art today is the loss of natural dialogue between artists and society. In the visual arts, the rupture is almost total. The figure of the painter or sculptor has ceased to take part in public conversation, and we have passed from being relevant to being irrelevant.

The process was slow, but devastating. First, from certain cultural circles, popular art began to be questioned, labeled as crude, vulgar, or tasteless. The idea took hold that the public’s taste had to be “elevated.” Later, the programming of public institutions began replacing that organic ecosystem with more sophisticated, conceptual, or experimental proposals. Because these could also be sustained through subsidies, they no longer depended on the genuine interest of people to survive. The result was double: many stopped consuming popular art because they had been convinced it was inferior, yet they also did not feel addressed by the institutional offerings. And little by little, they gave up on both. This pattern has repeated itself across many cultural fields.

And in this process artists are not innocent victims; we allowed ourselves to be seduced by the pomp of the court and the promise of easy money. We accepted softening the truth of our art so as not to discomfort those who decide who exhibits and who does not. Little by little we stopped producing works of quality that spoke with people; we stopped seeking the complicity of those beside us in exchange for the favors of those above us.

Artists need to turn their gaze back toward concrete people, toward those who have never bought art, who do not visit museums, and who feel that culture is not made for them. That implies accepting risks: economic risk, the risk of indifference, the risk of direct criticism, and the risk of humiliating failure. It can be terrifying, but it is the only ground on which an authentic relationship can be rebuilt.

But this disconnection is not the responsibility of only one side. Society, for its part, must also send signals, take interest, and participate actively, praising or criticizing with honesty instead of despising from a distance.

The lack of dialogue between culture and society impoverishes both sides. When artists stop pointing toward beauty, reality grows grayer. We begin to feel alone and isolated, because there are no new legends or symbols to gather us around the fire. And hopelessness grows as well, because no one dares to imagine aloud a better future.

Sometimes I feel as if I were flailing like a drowning man in the middle of a desert. I cast out works, words, and proposals, hoping for some sign of life from the other side. If anything we do reaches you (even a little, even with doubts), respond. That gesture, however small, may be the first thread with which to weave again the bridge we have allowed to deteriorate.