It’s slow art WEEK. Are you looking at art… slowly?
There’s a new trend in looking at art, and I approve fully. It’s SLOW ART – like slow food, slow travel… The idea is that if you look at a single work of art for a while (say, 10 minutes), you’re going to see things you didn’t notice had you just looked for one minute. Based on this principle, Phil Terry of Reading Odyssey began the Slow Art movement and its related activities.
April 17 2010 is international Slow Art day. In cities around the world, all at the same time, people will be individually looking at art slowly, then meeting as a group to talk about it over food and drink. This is a casual approach, not a lecture. But you’ll learn something. And you’ll be taking part in a worldwide movement.
Is your city participating? check the list of cities.
In Florence, I am hosting Slow Art day at the Church of Santa Croce at 4pm on Saturday April 17, followed by a buffet aperitivo at Brac, a contemporary art bookstore and vegetarian cafe. If you want to read more about slow art before signing up, here’s my article about it on TuscanyArts. If you’re already convinced, sign up on Eventbrite.
If you can’t make it on the 17th, do something slow art this week. In Florence that’d be easy – stop in any piazza (like the contest winners who wrote about piazza ssma Annunziata and Piazza della Signoria did) and contemplate the space, its architecture, the flow of people, the public art. If you live somewhere in the States or anywhere with less obvious art and history, find a park with public art! You don’t need to go to a museum to experience art; there are sculptures at street crossings, graffiti art in underpasses, a myriad of opportunities.
