Last month, I handed my thesis in for assessment. The paper is focused on the controverses evoked and found through art works.
The formulated research question was : "How are conflicts depicted in art works and what does the artist that portrays these want to communicate?"
I chose for an interdisciplinary and fairly theoretical approach for answering this question. By assembling a new analysis model, based on other models and discourses, the art works and the artists are examined in two case studies.
With the art works, three things are enquired: the given meaning / (hidden) message, the intention attribution by the artist and the abstract idea. The artists are examined and will be profiled according to three concepts of the 'artist being': the artist as a civiliser, as a border crosser and as a representator.
I took two case studies: the Mohammed cartoons by Charlie Hebdo and the sculpture 'Entropa' by David Cerny. Both cases have shaken the media and made great commotion and controversy. While the first artist(s) depicted Mohammed, the islamic profet, in a shameful way according to the Muslim community, the second artist made a collection of European clichés and sometimes shocking stereotypes about the countries. Through the analysis, both artists were found to be border crossers, without having the intention of offending specific groups or communities. They both use humour as their weapon against cynicism and as a tool of self expression. In an abstract way, both art works are original and unusual calls for fraternisation and forbearance.
In an analogy, my film is literally about opposites (or controverses) and it brings the message to come together and unite when the time is there. An unusual call for fraternisation, an invite for expressing their inner most feelings (of fear in the film's case) towards each other,... my thesis is connected to the level of content. As the title of my thesis gives away, "Call for forbearance: Opposites and controversy represented in art", there is a moral voice resonating through my works, be it in films or writing. You could say it is a never ending thought process on what I believe to perceive, what is happening to the world on an inner level. And my voice that speaks through what I create and wants to act like a moral compass, will never stop.
The thesis is available in the LUCA library in Brussels.
The formulated research question was : "How are conflicts depicted in art works and what does the artist that portrays these want to communicate?"
I chose for an interdisciplinary and fairly theoretical approach for answering this question. By assembling a new analysis model, based on other models and discourses, the art works and the artists are examined in two case studies.
With the art works, three things are enquired: the given meaning / (hidden) message, the intention attribution by the artist and the abstract idea. The artists are examined and will be profiled according to three concepts of the 'artist being': the artist as a civiliser, as a border crosser and as a representator.
I took two case studies: the Mohammed cartoons by Charlie Hebdo and the sculpture 'Entropa' by David Cerny. Both cases have shaken the media and made great commotion and controversy. While the first artist(s) depicted Mohammed, the islamic profet, in a shameful way according to the Muslim community, the second artist made a collection of European clichés and sometimes shocking stereotypes about the countries. Through the analysis, both artists were found to be border crossers, without having the intention of offending specific groups or communities. They both use humour as their weapon against cynicism and as a tool of self expression. In an abstract way, both art works are original and unusual calls for fraternisation and forbearance.
In an analogy, my film is literally about opposites (or controverses) and it brings the message to come together and unite when the time is there. An unusual call for fraternisation, an invite for expressing their inner most feelings (of fear in the film's case) towards each other,... my thesis is connected to the level of content. As the title of my thesis gives away, "Call for forbearance: Opposites and controversy represented in art", there is a moral voice resonating through my works, be it in films or writing. You could say it is a never ending thought process on what I believe to perceive, what is happening to the world on an inner level. And my voice that speaks through what I create and wants to act like a moral compass, will never stop.
The thesis is available in the LUCA library in Brussels.