Limited Edition
ART & PHILOSOPHY - The medium is the message
Art and philosophy share a common responsibility: the formation of a view of the world and of ourselves. While philosophy and the sciences tend to draw us towards a place of abstraction, art translates concepts into ‘things’, materialising ideas so that they can be experienced in tangible form.
Art is powerful because it appeals to our emotions, and it is through emotions that we are compelled into a change of attitude. For it is what we perceive through our senses that dictates what we believe to be true and real.
The artist Joseph Beuys maintained that ‘every human being is an artist’. Likewise, philosopher Michel Foucault said that ‘we are all a work of art’. These proclamations were based on a newly gained awareness that we are not separate from the environment we are trying to protect, but part of it. As we live our lives, we are the creators of a reality for today – be it good or bad – and a legacy for the future.
We are both the medium and the message. We need an inner shift of perception if we are to bring about the change we want to see in the world we inhabit. ‘We are the revolution,’ declared Beuys.
Our very survival depends on this realisation.
Laura and Damian Santamaria
Editorial Directors