Recently I went to the summer exhibition at Tate Modern, Exposed_Voyeurism, Surveillance and the Camera. It's a huge appealing exhibition, definitely consistent with its title. That's why I shouldn't have been surprised to find a section where cctv camera shots were shown after a long succession of beautiful images. Obviously it was at the end of the exhibition, when you arrive emotionally exhausted by such a big amount of pictures. I thought that that must be the main reason why at that point I got nervous...
Some days later I visited another exhibtion at Tate Modern and this time I didn't get any disappointments. Francis Alys is definetly a great contemporary artist. Just near the book-shop there is a series of tv monitors showing the Nightwatch. It's a pretty famous video that he realised letting a fox free to stroll around the National Portrait Gallery of London during the night time. http://www.francisalys.com/online/nightwatch.html
It's a work about cctv cameras, cohabitation of human beings and animals in a capital city, museum, etc etc. I don't want to talk about Francis Alys, I think there is enough literature about his work.
Nowadays I have the feeling that a lot of contemporary art is acknowledged and praised because it's "conceptual".
Honestly I can't stand this point !!
If I don't like something I can't say it's art just because there is a mind behind it...
What I expect from a work of art is to be emotionally striking, aestethically pleasing and that when I come back home my mind is still thinking about what I've seen... but not just because I'm nervous!!
