An exhibition room with hardly a dozen people. It is annoying. Yet it is Sunday.
‘Are you likeable?’ a lovable person would ask. ‘Are you killable?’ I would ask. ‘Then I like you.’
The massacre of hardly a dozen people is nil compared to our news flashes. But in an exhibition room, such deed would be memorable. Dying for art’s sake.
What would one do to those kilograms of spare flesh? Rembrandt’s (…) old man would still remain indifferent, seated, in his dark corner, masterly light caressing his unreal hands. His hands now splattered with unreal blood spots, he would think; his reality is other. Rembrandt’s Athena would not notice a thing. The nature of her obscure world, regardless of the masterly light kissing her cheeks, is already drawn back from the relative reality of the massacre; it is closer to Plato’s real world, from the old man’s perspective.
He stands, seated, in between both worlds. He could not decide which one to choose. He got old thinking about it. He had to sit down. In an obscure corner. It appears to him that Plato was wrong and right. Right, what is perceived is apparent. What is perceived is no imitation but integral part of it all, wrong. He thinks this painting of his is part and not an imitation of his own portrait.
World wide distribution of the images would be assured by the victims' various nationalities. Athena and the (…) old man would get extra coverage. Or would they not be mentioned? Would any reporter put aside the gruesome story and produce a documentary on Rembrandt instead after examining the paintings that witnessed the reason for the same reporter to be there in locus? Those people were past; both paintings had a brighter future. Or could it be that the victims were exhibited from then on, replacing the longer dead paintings?
What would they write on the victims' memorial plaque? A simple exhibition room turned famous! Murder as an extra spice. Would they keep the blood stains? Would they become part?
It is annoying. Art is.
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Portrait of an old man:
http://www.museu.gulbenkian.pt/obra.asp?num=1489&nuc=a9&lang=en
Athena (?) or Alexander the great (?):
http://www.rembrandtpainting.net/complete_catalogue/storia_b/helmet.htm
