10 themes, 10 art posts: The Millennial Museum Blast
Organised on Instagram
by the original Musaller,
Angela Gala @imamusaller
Oil on board. 1974.
Seen at the Hungarian National Gallery,
Sept 2018.
Day 1: Creativity
I thought that was one of the hardest themes!
How do you express creativity with something that cannot be considered anything else than creative?
Therefore, my shot of a painting by expressionist Leon Kossoff inspired me to show how creativity can distort familiarity.
Kossoff here depicts a view of a demolished building from his studio in Dalston, London.
It’s an area of London that I know like the back of my hand, so it looks weirdly familiar… even though the artist’s creativity and style have clearly taken over.
Day 2: Discovery
Throwback to when I met C3PO and R2D2 in real life!
I picked Star Wars for today’s theme to celebrate the thirst for discovery.
The movies acted as pioneers for the discovery of special effects, of the solar system and the universe.
Are you a Star Wars fan?
Day 3: Comprehension.
On the same note as yesterday, science and nature museums were originally founded by researchers, collectors who were studying the world around them.
Like the British Museum itself, which was created in the late 18th century from the collection of Sir Hans Sloane.
Where do we come from?
How do things work? What is life?
It is said meteorites such as this one still contain some of the most primal elements that created the entire universe.
Being an absolute space nerd, I had to go check out the meteorite exhibition at the Natural History Museum in Paris.
I love science centres as much as art museums,
what about you?
Day 4: Exchange
Sometimes, art depicts reality, but which reality?
Whose reality?
Art is always an exchange between the meanders inside the artist’s mind, his guts, his skills and his medium.
And then there can be an exchange between different artists, different eras, different point of views.
Here, a contemporary take on familiar works of art, to change the way we see them and express something else through a different lens.
What’s your favourite example of a classic work of art being revisited?
Day 5: Emotion
Museums are the memory of humanity.
It’s also art’s role to remind us of a painful past.
Maybe it thus pushes us in the right direction, so we don’t make the same mistakes again.
I went to Memento Park, on the outskirts of Budapest, to see the old Communist statues that were removed from the city following the regime change.
It gave me chills!
The whole park is pretty isolated, there weren’t a lot of visitors, the light was playing with the ominous statues and everything was so full of history it gave out a sense of imminent doom.
Right outside the entrance of the park are a few dark underground galleries, where the statues that are not on display are kept.
Seeing Lenin’s bust in the chiaroscuro (pic 4), in great condition, on a pile of vulgar wooden pallets, felt like this past wasn’t far away at all… as if he were just waiting.
I highly recommend going there if you’re ever in Hungary.
Have you ever felt an uncomfortable feel when witnessing art?
Day 6: Inspiration.
“I was never really insane except upon occasions when my heart was touched.” ― Edgar Allan Poe
Inspiration, for me, is exactly that: when your heart is touched.
When you stop for a second to take it all in, you drop all your defence mechanisms and you just let yourself feel.
That’s the way I felt when I worked on my most amazing projects.
That’s what I’m looking to feel every day.
What has left you full of inspiration, lately?
A work of art? A song? How blue was the sky?
Day 7: Curiosity
Museums inspire curiosity, especially when their architectures look like aquatic creatures, eyes and fish bones!
I was lucky to live in Valencia, Spain for a few months to practice my Spanish.
This is the amazing City of Arts and Sciences, designed by Santiago Calatrava, home to the Science Museum, the Planetarium and the amazing Oceanografic.
It’s actually from the day I went that Belugas became one of my favourite animals.
Have you ever been?
Are you a fan of modernist architecture or do you prefer more traditional-looking buildings?
Day 8: Amusement
I picked this one simply because I like it a lot.
It was the first time I saw the coolest chick on the block: The famous Venus de Milo at the Louvre.
It was the first Greek statue to ever be exposed in the Parisian museum!
I’ve never felt comfortable on pictures, so closing my eyes and adding a touch of ‘Amusement’ made me feel more natural (read, like my crazy self!)
It’s an old pic, like for most pics that I used during this challenge as I tried to focus on my very favourites.
And yes, that’s true, I had blonde (and blue!… and every colour under the sun) hair for many years.
In any case, looking through all the pics posted by everyone taking part in the challenge is wonderful, inspiring and full of knowledge and beauty (isn’t that why we love museums?)
What’s your take on coloured hair? Yay or nay?
Photographer: Ronaldo Schemidt
Day 9: Transmission
I had the chance to see the World Press Exhibition, the travelling exhibition about the most representative press photography of the year.
It brought me to tears a few times, as I could see all that the world had gone through in 2018.
Messages of suffering, of hope, of dark times and of lighter days.
Artists pick a medium to make us feel what they feel, see what they see.
Some photographs from this exhibition were almost tangible.
Art wouldn’t exist without our species’ need for transmission, for sharing, for coming together as a community.
We need to exchange to see the good inside the bad and the bad in what appears to be good.
It helps us grow our critical thinking,
open our hearts and expand our minds.
Art is never objective.
Art = Transmission.
Day 10: Protection
Art acts as a protecting force.
Protecting our freedom of expression, our creativity.
Sometimes raising awareness or acting as a whistleblower to highlight issues and protect us and future generations.
On a daily basis, I use art in different ways.