Sound of silence

Visiting galleries is a great experience for me. And many times it is not because of the artwork.

Last week I had an honour to visit an exhibition at the gallery in Liberec. The exhibition itself was fine. Nothing special but ok. I have seen better.

As in every other gallery, the most interesting thing was the feeling. If you have ever been to a gallery you probably know what I mean. Dense and focused. Filled with thoughts.

Many people at once are looking at pictures and sculptures and other pieces of artwork. And each of them is trying to decipher what did the author mean.

Why he did it that way and not some other. What was their goal? What inspired them? Why is it completely different from that other author?

And as many people visit, that many opinions on these questions. Each of the visitors focuses on different aspects. I love sculptures and materials. I am fascinated by using unusual techniques. Someone else might be amazed by 19th-century portraits and their realistic depiction. Or maybe wondering how renaissance masters created the technique of chiaroscuro, which creates a dramatic effect by the strong contrast between light and dark. I will never be able to create something like it. Not in a lifetime. But still, I am not impressed.

Someone else is. It does not matter what keeps us in wonder. Sooner or later, everybody finds something.

And we all fill the room with that wonder. We are quiet. The silence is heavy. It is a cloak which covers us. Everything is slow in a gallery. For some time, people do not rush. Exact opposite from our lives nowadays.

A gallery is a strange place. Place of silence and quiet wonder. And I am not sure if people realize that.

Galleries are the mystery for me.

You should go there. It is worth it.

Cheers