Trash or Art?

"In art, deep feeling is the soul's dialogue with another soul." - Wassily Kandinsky

Imagine this: French artist Alexandre Lavet sets up an exhibition at the LAM Museum. One of the standout pieces is a minimalist installation, but as the cleaning crew walks by, they see it as more of an abandoned pile than art. So, what do they do? Naturally, they throw it away. This funny yet striking incident really makes us think about how fragile art can be and how much it depends on who's looking at it. The value of art truly changes based on the eyes that perceive it.

This incident reminds me of Marcel Duchamp's famous "Fountain" piece from 1917. When Duchamp presented an ordinary urinal as an art piece and declared, "This is art," many people mocked him. Some even refused to display it. But Duchamp was pushing the boundaries of what art could be. Lavet's experience echoes this, reminding us how fluid and subjective the definition and value of art can be. What might seem ordinary or meaningless to one person could carry deep significance for another.

As Kandinsky said, "In art, deep feeling is the soul's dialogue with another soul." Art truly finds its meaning when it speaks to the viewer's soul. For the cleaning crew, Lavet's piece may have been just a pile of trash, but for someone who appreciates art, that minimalist installation could represent a profound feeling or thought. The meaning of art really does depend on who is looking at it, how they see it, and what they expect from it.

This whole incident shows us the complex and powerful nature of art. It might look like trash to one person, but for someone else, it could be a deeply meaningful work. This kind of complexity is exactly what makes art special and takes it beyond the ordinary. Lavet's experience reminds us, yet again, how subjective and multi-dimensional art really is. Just imagine, for an ordinary cleaning worker, this piece was simply a pile to be disposed of, but in reality, it was a manifestation of an artist's effort and the expression of an emotion or thought.