Art and Care

Writer Persis Bekkering's opening article begins with the sentence, "A fresh wind is blowing through the arts." Bekkering speaks of a development called the "reparative revolution," which she contrasts with the 20th-century avant-gardes. The avant-garde arts were not necessarily focused on repair and care, but much more on renewal through turmoil, creative destruction and shock.

The avant-garde art was not necessarily focused on recovery and care

Within the arts, including around their production, there is increasing thought about "care. Care means more than just care: "it means caring, maintenance, attention, concern and even love." As an example, she cites the work When the body says no by melanie bonajo with which she represented the Netherlands in 2022 at the Biënnale of Veniceë.

Bekkering says reparative art wants to contribute something to the livability of the world, but it's broader, it's about "a broad upheaval, which increasingly points to the harmfulness and violence of systems (capitalism, colonialism), and the position of art as a site for and engine of change and repair."

Art and Care

Bekkering shows that reparative art is not a new phenomenon, but has gained attention and urgency recently and certainly as a result of the corona pandemic. Another cause that there is now more room for reparative art than before is that feminine values, such as caring and service, are no longer considered inferior today. According to Bekkering, this has also led to a shift in aesthetic values: "One of the fascinating aspects [...] is that it forces us to rethink what we recognize as art."

At the end of the article, Bekkering wonders if the focus on care does not force artists too much into a straitjacket of utility thinking and if it is not at odds with the indeterminacy and ambiguity that is so important in art. She concludes with the sentence, "Indeed, having faith that art is an essential, indispensable aspect of (co)life, whatever its effect, is also a form of caring."

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About the Bookman on art and care

In episode 8 of our podcast series What's that doing here?  we spoke with Sjaak Langenberg and others about the work of artists in care facility Reinaarde. Also, other episodes of the podcast series concur in substance with the above article.