O silêncio é tão exato: arte e resistência

“We have Art in order not to die from the Truth”, states Goya. Is art a saving force? Mark Rothko muddies the waters: “There is only one thing I fear in life… One day the black will swallow the red.” For him, the colour black was tantamount to “the diminution of the life force”, to our mortality. What can a work of art do when confronted with its ubiquitous signs? Is there a space of its own, outside of which it is exiled? Within the context of the presentation of John Logan’s Red, and taking the issues raised by the play as their starting-point, stage director Carlos Pimenta and a group of guests come together in the talk O silêncio é tão exato: Arte e resistência [Silence is so accurate: Art and resistance]. Is the clash between art and money the original sin of contemporary art? Does not Rothko’s demand of an absolute work of art – the reason behind his refusal of Rauschenberg, Warhol, and even Picasso – lead to pure silence and renouncement of the world? Or could it be that his painting, with its chromatic drama, porticoes, openings, horizon lines and double spaces, contains the construction of a possible world?