STATEMENT:Such A Morning

Are the times we are going through difficult? On the other hand, when they easy? Is it because we went through a period of artificial affluence, prosperity and growth? Did the measures of happiness and success outweigh us? Have we gone beyond  the limits? and from the Spiritual Development which was the goal we passed to theMaterial Development? These questions have arisen, or rather emerged, on the surface more strongly, now in an era of the intense Crisis that we are experiencing worldwide, initially financially and then Social. Through the Forfeiture and the Plunge into chaos of the human value system, emerges a series of concerns, consternations and topics, in which art can raise an issue, since the Religions and their Philosophy have been so overwhelmed that they seem unable to propose solutions. This is how Art comes in the forefront with Amar Kanwar’s pivotal video, “Such A Morning”,  which premiered at Athens School of Fine Arts (ASFA) in the context of dpcumenta 14, then at Marian Goodman Gallery in London (19/9-14/10/17), New York  (14/11-21/12/18) and Paris (12/1-7/3/19) I saw it there three times; and now is presented at Ishara Art Foundation, Dubai. In this video through a person’s journey from darkness to light and illumination or from the crucifixion to the resurrection, Amar Kanwar transmits  and passes down a very important message. Through a journey that is not utopian, but personal, derives from the personal will and desire the solution and redemption. It is a work that exemplifies in a simpler but not simplistic way, the self-belief, the personal struggle and the agony without external interference and influence, but with main axis and epicenter ourselves. So if in each of these difficult times, if each of us, stop and listen to the inner teacher who lives inside him and follow him,  he will realize that most the suffering around us are either artificial  to some degree, or can be solved in much easier ways than he could think of: “Such a Morning’’.–Efi Michalarou

Photo: Amar Kanwar, Such a Morning (Video Still), 2017, Digital video, color, sound; 85 min., Single channel, looped, Ed. Of 6, © Amar Kanwar, Courtesy the artist and Marian Goodman Gallery