We hope the expression conveys our idea. When a person is dying, when a life is slipping away, we commonly speak of resuscitation.
We certainly do not know how to revive contemporary art. Perhaps we lack the means and abilities, and our criticism may prove fruitless, yielding no results.
Yet we are trying. We believe that the attempt itself, regardless of the outcome, is a vital response to the decline we are experiencing.
We have the right to criticize, and it is wise to propose something different.
We have attended today's art schools and know how inadequate they are.
We know the market system in which art without a soul is produced.
Every day we experience the consequences of a violent society in which human worth is subordinated to economic rules.
We feel disoriented and angry, and often powerless in the face of this profound crisis.
Amid all this, we ask ourselves:
What future awaits the younger generations?
What kind of present is there for those who work in the arts with deep sincerity?
What will become of us idealists who seek a nonviolent resolution to the conflicts around us?
Perhaps our criticisms and proposals are mistaken, but we deeply believe that art can be a resource, a catalyst for radical change.
We feel the need for an art that once again addresses the great universal questions of existence.
An art that expresses uncertainties but also hopes, and opens up new aesthetic possibilities for artists of the new millennium. But a new art requires a new consciousness.
For this reason, art education must also change its aims. We have the finest technologies and a vast array of materials at our disposal, yet we create works devoid of profound meaning. Looking to the past, we are astonished by small sculptures and cave paintings made with unimaginably limited resources.
We must try to move beyond empty, sterile technical virtuosity. How wonderful it would be to reconnect with what is most sacred and profound within each of us.
The aim of the ESTETRA Institute is to cultivate a greater awareness of the sacred and the profound by studying the complexity of our inner world, in the hope of breathing the Vital EssenceVital Essence or Soul
The vital essence, or soul, is the immaterial spirit that lives within us. For many people, animals too have souls. For some, the entire universe is animated. We believe that everything around us has a soul, although with different kinds and degrees of energy and complexity. The human soul is the highest spiritual expression of the universe known to us. back into art.
>>> Further reading
Contemporary Art: Art Without a Soul?
Our Sense of Emptiness in the Face of Contemporary Art
Loss of the Soul: A Process Spanning More Than 100 Years