Unruly Visual Art as a Source for Liberal Humanist Resilience

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Abstract

Visual art does not judge. That was the method advocated by the school of the skeptics of Pyrrho. Since everything was considered doubtful, they did not want to pass judgment on anything, with a view to achieving "ataraxia,"or the peace of mind. Nowadays "stress-resistant"people would say this means that resilience is thrown out of the window. Artwork is open, stated Umberto Eco. All serious interpretations are therefore possible. Contradiction, or at least ambiguity, is an important aspect of art. That is precisely what makes it such an interesting source of resilience. I will take as a case study the discussion that took place in the recent past about sudden unsolicited, inappropriate images painted on walls in Brussels. The artwork by Bonom, Vincent Glowinski, was not part of an urban beautification plan, but raucous protests against the absurd decisions of power and against the hypocrisy of our society.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)223–242
Number of pages20
JournalSecular Studies
Volume3
Issue number2
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 28 Sep 2021

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 Copyright 2021 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands.

Keywords

  • street art
  • secular humanism
  • religious humanism
  • resilience
  • brussels

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