5 February 2016
The students of the Master’s Degree in Innovation and Competitiveness (MUCI) have taken a class on science and modern art in the Guggenheim museum Bilbao, given by the professor Hans Christian Garmann Johnsen, from the University of Agder (Norway).
The epistemological session aimed at reflecting on modern art and science, from the perspective that modernism is different from the modern idea of progress. During the session the students shared their thoughts with professor Garmann on the way in which modern art redefines the rules of art, claiming its independence, emphasizing subjectivity and free interpretation, and generating dialogue between the observer and the observed. The session reflected on the anti-positivism of science, the diversity of reasoning, phenomenology, hermeneutics and existentialism, among other aspects.
According to professor Garmann, “the objective of the Guggenheim museum visit was for the students to experiment in first person modernism and contemporary art”. He added that, “if one walks for example along Richard Serra’s iron sculpture, he/she can experience the difference between being a mere observer and being part of the art work”. He followed by stating that, “if you venture inside Anselm Kiefer’s work, you are capable of experiencing the pain of war, but at the same time it also reflects the human existence, while artists such as Mark Rothko allow us to live the abstract”.
The purpose of the visit was to better understand the ideas that are developed by philosophers of science such as John Dewey and Michel Foucault, who base their research on modern art.
