Yafit Taranto

“I would rather die of passion than die of boredom” said Vincent van Gogh, the father of all insane artist. Why is creativity so in love with madness? Or is it that insane people need to make art for words could not describe what they are feeling?

Neurological studies suggest that the same parts of the brain are active during creative process and psychosis. Van Gogh himself claimed that he is only painting between mental episodes; therefore he is not a mad painter. Glorified melancholia or not- visiting the first outsider museum in Amsterdam at the Hermitage made me wish I were a bit crazier (but only for short periods so I can work in between)

Here are three reasons to visit the Outsider Art Museum in the Hermitage Amsterdam this weekend:

1. The Japanese selection got my insides out and turned me all around. Japanese, a language that contains a word for “dying from too much work” also has a long esthetic tradition (what I perceive as radical passion). It is interesting to see the difference between the Japanese outsider’s art and the Western one.
2. The films about the Japanese makers show the artist/outsiders. Each and every maker was fascinating to watch. The graphs of a man that is obsessed with calculating strength and achievement got even more painful after watching the film.
3. The excellent wine at the Hermitage garden café, It gave time to think and marvel the Japanese outsider art.

Museum Fatigue is a well-known sickness. Attacking its victims when they are at their weakest; while they are in need of inspiration. Walking around a museum, a gallery or sitting for three hours in an experimental music concert is exhausting. Last week I caught a friend snoring at a Pina Bausch’s performance. His plea for innocence was: ” It’s a museum piece!” in other words- boring and irrelevant. A teenage daughter of a friend told us she saw an “arty concert” at school. When we asked for more information she replied, ‘I set for two hours in a dark cold hall listening to “Ploop. Ploop, Ploop biiiiiiiiiiii” sounds. Isn’t that art?’

Here are seven quick tips to make your next museum visit an experience to remember with gladness rather than exhaustion.

1. Eat first, look at art later; walking around for hours can make even the greatest art lover tired, hungry and hangry. There is so much to see, but you don’t get any snacks in between. Eat before your visit, or take a break at the museum’s restaurants.

Warning: don’t eat too much. Nobody can look at art seriously with a full stomach.

2. Bring a friend- how often do we have the same conversations about the same topics with our friends? Experiencing a museum together can bring new life into a friendship. Warning: Choose the exhibition wisely. What kind of connection do you want to make? Do you want to take your friend to the Museum of Science or Death?

3. Friends can be a huge interruption in a museum. They walk too slow or reach the exit by the time you are still checking your second painting. A museum visit can be time for you alone. Just like an urban oasis amidst the mundane duties, a place where you lose yourself with reconciling thoughts.

3. Take your time- the average museum visitor spends 14 seconds looking at an art piece. Understandable; we need to move fast; there is so much to see! But why?!

Nobody expects us to eat the whole menu in a restaurant, no matter how fancy it is. Why should we look at each and every painting in a museum? You can also scan the exhibition, find one work that seduces you and spent some time with it. The thoughts that come up after looking at a painting for half an hour are pretty radical.

4. Listen to music-   Music makes the world magical. It gives the chance to be alone even in the middle of a crowed. Try to connect with the same artwork while listening different kind of music. You will find different worlds in the same painting.

5. Take an audio tour- the first time I realize how important an audio tour while visiting the 19th century exhibition. There were many paintings of 19th-century streets, people, and other scenes. Nothing caught my eyes. So I started reading the text underneath a painting of a really boring woman. It said: “A woman in Champs Elysee at night; the subject of the painting might be a prostitute or a lesbian woman searching for another woman. The way lesbians were communicating with each other in that period was by making noises”(a bit like Italian guys do now).

6. Special Events- In the 1970tis curators had the notion that art should speak for itself. According to them, this should take place preferably in big halls painted white, with no windows and especially nowhere to sit. I have the notion that art as well as artist love parties, music, fun and drinks. The New York metropolitan gives cocktail parties monthly, Moma hosted Kraftwerk concerts and Van Gogh’ open its doors with interesting program every Friday till 22.00. Looking at art after hours with a cocktail in hand is a good way to enjoy art.

7. Read, watch films gather information- Art is a language. Just like any other language a big vocabulary helps understanding what is said to you.

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Yesterday I shared a more abstract reflection with you on Olie, a performance by Collectief Walden in the Bijbels Museum in Amsterdam.
Today I like to show you an impression of their original performance. It was the last performance in the Seven Sin-series that took place in the Bible Museum. During seven months different artist gave their take about the subject that fascinate us human being since Eve at the apple.
If you are in the Netherlands this June, you can marvel the Colletief Walden at Oerol Theater Festival on Terschelling.
http://oerol.nl/nieuws/hoera-meer-collectief-walden-op-terschelling/

My visit to the windmill “Der Hoop” in Vreeland (the Netherlands) got me full with admiration for humankind.

People built rolling towers in the air in little villages and small towns. 20 tons of stones rolling over other 20 tons,  for bread.

Paradise lost, maybe this time, forever..

This is a rough cut version of a registration film. I filmed it about a month ago in the Bible museum. Some more info when, is going to arrive at the final version video of Collective Waldmen at the Bible museum.  For now merely a draft.

Who said we always have to show work only when it’s done?

After three weeks of intensive animation work, I ran the Shakespeare Marathon tonight the resulats.

Come and check all 154 sonnets around the beautiful building, of Felix Meritis.

Frans van Duersen already helped me fall in love with Shakespeare’s Sonnets.

I enjoyed looking at details of his work, spotting brands names that create the circle of our consumer’s lives. It also reminded me of another work of tapestry that amused me some time ago. I couldn’t remember the name of the artist but I knew it was obscene. So I got back to the studio searching the net for “Junky Carpets”. In the end, I could find images of the obscene carpet but only on my own computer, so I still don’t know the name of the artist. At least, I still remember that the word “Spinster” derives from “the woman who spins”, “female spinner of the thread”. Those were the only women (before 1960’s)that could effort not getting married; they had worked weaving tapestry for a living- therefore, all us unmarried gals above 20 are “spinsters” ever since. Luckily, we (women), got our jobs now so we can buy us lots of stuff!