Art, innovation, communication and expression
When I look at the SOTF agenda I look at:
UN 2.0: adapt basic UN practices on data, communications, innovation, strategic foresight, performance and results, and more, so it is better positioned to support all the above and face the challenges of tomorrow.
Where does advancement of mankind by expressing yourself through Art surface in the Agenda? An innovation SDG9 perhaps?
I am not exactly clear. However, being immersed in the Monet, Manets, and Nahid Ali’s from childhood, and having dabbled plenty myself (for family, friends, global political leaders and exhibitions) I am interested in seeing a definite place for its expression in the future.
A recent article in Le Monde on Charlotte Rampling’s secret paintings (https://www.lemonde.fr/m-le-mag/article/2023/03/31/charlotte-rampling-et-ses-peintures-secretes-personne-ne-savait-c-etait-sorti-des-tenebres-de-mes-tenebres_6167677_4500055.html) caught my attention for many reasons. I must have been 12 and at the Senior school in Croissy (banlieu ouest de Paris) when I came across her for the first time. One of my classmates was the child of the famous British actress Charlotte Rampling. Her being married to our favorite French musician Jean Michelle Jarre made her even more of a hit at school. As kids we found our quiet British elegance very chic. But today many years later when I read about how she started painting and what she painted it resonates with me on a couple of levels:
- Art is a very powerful medium that must be used to achieve SDGs. I can think of countless paintings I have personally made which are linked to the advancement of SDGs.
- Through time immemorial artists have used their brush strokes for communication purposes. And boy have they communicated or what! Art is a language on its own. For multilateralism it is a linguo that speaks to all at different levels. It must be used far more in the future.
- Abstract pieces especially can either be mistaken for childlike inconsequential pieces by the blind or appreciated as ways of expressions of something deeper than words can deliver.
Coming back to Ms Rampling her art was created by her being guided by ‘je ne sais quoi’. It is beautiful the way the figures in her paintings simply appeared like a genie. My point being that sometimes simplest of messages can be communicated through a language that everyone can relate to in the multilateral world.
I am reminded of the paintings I presented Queen Maxima on financial inclusion and the one on women empowerment to Mrs Erdogan (to name just a few). They speak beyond words. The future of art could be AI digital. It could be ‘frotter les mains sur le toile.’ Whatever, the medium it matters little. The idea is to communicate key messages through Art. I have done it in the past. I intend doing it in the future. The SOTF must encourage more communication and expression through the arts. It will bring the world closer.
“The vulnerable reaching for salvation assisted by national, regional, UN” A painting done by me as an expression of how the vulnerable are dependent on all actors for their exiting their current state.