Don’t understand contemporary art? What is contemporary art?

After maintaining eye contact with over 1,500 people for a total of 716 hours, this astonishing artistic expression completely overturned people’s imagination of traditional art. Many people think they can’t understand contemporary art, but in fact, it has long broken through the past perception that “artworks are just paintings hung in art galleries or sculptures placed in exhibition halls”. It is more like a creative concept experiment, such as using melting ice blocks as a installation to represent the passage of time, assembling discarded items to mock the absurdity of consumerism, and sharply criticizing reality. And the one who completed this 716-hour eye contact performance was Marina Abramović, known as the “mother of performance art”. Her classic work “The Artist Is Present” was staged at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, using gaze to explore emotions and trust between people.

What are the characteristics of contemporary art?
Contemporary art is not merely beautiful visual works; it is more like a container filled with thoughts. Artists use these works to express their attitudes towards life and attempt to change the world through their own ideas. Therefore, we can no longer judge it based on “whether it is good-looking” but should think about what kind of human nature the works are exploring behind the scenes.

How can ordinary people understand contemporary art?
The key lies in changing one’s perspective and trying to grasp the deeper meaning behind the works. When thinking about the issues of the times, one truly understands the significance of contemporary art’s involvement and transformation of life. In the end, contemporary art is the result of the collision between technology and humanities. Its value does not lie in how realistic the paintings are or how exquisite the sculptures are, but in whether it can prompt us to think more about the current society and evoke some resonance. This might be the charm of contemporary art. It breaks the conventions and uses the most unexpected methods to make art shine as a ray of light into reality.