Can art amend history? | Titus Kaphar

Prevoditelj: Irma Komljenović Recezent: Tilen Pigac - EFZG

I love museums.

Volim muzeje.

Have you guys ever been to the Natural History Museum?

Jeste li ikad bili u Prirodoslovnom muzeju?

In New York City?

U New York Cityju?

(Applause)

(Pljesak)

So one of the things that I do is I take my kids to the museum.

Nekad svoju djecu odvedem u muzej.

Recently I took them to the Natural History Museum.

Nedavno sam ih odveo u Prirodoslovni muzej.

I had my two sons with me, Sabian and Dabith.

Bio sam tamo sa svoja dva sina, Sabianom i Dabithom.

And we go into the front entrance of the museum,

Priđemo ulazu u muzej,

and there's that amazing sculpture of Teddy Roosevelt out there.

a tamo stoji nevjerojatna skulptura Teddyja Roosevelta.

You guys know which one I'm talking about.

Siguran sam da znate o kojoj pričam.

Teddy Roosevelt is sitting there with one hand on the horse,

Teddy Roosevelt sjedi s jednom rukom na konju,

bold, strong, sleeves rolled up.

odvažan, jak, zavrnutih rukava.

I don't know if he's bare-chested, but it kind of feels like it.

Ne znam ima li gola prsa, ali čini se kao da ima.

(Laughter)

(Smijeh)

And on the left-hand side of him is a Native American walking.

Na njegovoj lijevoj strani hoda Indijanac.

And on the right-hand side of him is an African-American walking.

Na njegovoj desnoj strani hoda Afroamerikanac.

And as we're moving up the stairs,

Dok se uspinjemo stubama,

približavajući se skulpturi,

getting closer to the sculpture,

my oldest son, who's nine, says,

moj najstariji sin, ima devet godina, kaže,

"Dad, how come he gets to ride,

"Tata, zašto on smije jahati,

and they have to walk?"

a oni moraju hodati?"

It stopped me in my tracks.

Zamrznuo sam se.

It stopped me in my tracks.

Zamrznuo sam se.

There was so much history

Kroz toliko bismo povijesti

that we would have to go through to try to explain that,

morali proći kako bi im to objasnio,

and that's something I try to do with them anyways.

a to uvijek pokušavam učiniti.

It's a question that I probably would have never really asked.

To je pitanje koje vjerojatno nikad ne bih postavio.

But fundamentally what he was saying was,

Ono što je zapravo rekao bilo je,

"That doesn't look fair.

"To ne izgleda pravedno.

Dad, that doesn't look fair.

Tata, to ne izgleda pravedno.

And why is this thing that's so not fair

I zašto ta nepravda

sitting outside of such an amazing institution."

stoji ispred ovako nevjerojatne institucije."

And his question got me wondering,

Zbog tog sam se pitanja zapitao

is there a way for us to amend our public sculptures,

postoji li način da ispravimo svoje javne skulpture,

svoje nacionalne spomenike?

our national monuments?

Not erase them,

Ne trebamo ih izbrisati,

but is there a way to amend them?

no postoji li način da ih ispravimo?

Now, I didn't grow up going to museums.

Dok sam odrastao, nisam išao u muzeje.

That's not my history.

To nije moja povijest.

My mother was 15 years old when I was born.

Moja me majka rodila s 15 godina.

She is amazing.

Divna je.

My father was struggling with his own things

Moj se otac bavio svojim stvarima

for most of my life.

većinu mog života.

If you really want to know the truth,

Ako želite znati istinu,

the only reason I got into art is because of a woman.

umjetnošću sam se počeo baviti zbog jedne žene.

There was this amazing, amazing, fantastic, beautiful, smart woman,

Bila je to divna, odlična, prelijepa, pametna žena,

four years older than me,

četiri godine starija od mene,

and I wanted to go out with her.

i htio sam izlaziti s njom.

But she said, "You're too young

No rekla je, "Premlad si

and you're not thinking about your future."

i ne razmišljaš o svojoj budućnosti."

So I ran on down to the junior college,

Otišao sam do visoke škole,

registered for some classes,

prijavio se na neke predmete,

ran on back,

vratio se

and basically was like, "I'm thinking about my future now."

i rekao, "Sad razmišljam o svojoj budućnosti."

(Smijeh)

(Laughter)

"Can we go out?"

"Hoćemo li izaći?"

For the record, she's even more amazing.

Samo da se zna, još je izvanrednija.

I married her.

Oženio sam ju.

(Applause)

(Pljesak)

So when I randomly ran down to the junior college

Kad sam tako iznenadno otišao do visoke škole

and registered for classes,

i prijavio se na neke predmete,

I really wasn't paying attention to what I was registering to.

nisam obraćao pozornost na što se prijavljujem.

(Laughter)

(Smijeh)

So I ended up with an art history class,

Završio sam na satu povijesti umjetnosti,

a nisam imao pojma o povijesti umjetnosti.

and I didn't know a thing about art history.

But something amazing happened when I went into that class.

No nešto se nevjerojatno dogodilo na tom satu.

For the first time in my academic career,

Prvi je put u mojoj akademskoj karijeri

my visual intelligence was required of me.

moja vizualna inteligencija bila potrebna.

For the first time.

Prvi put.

The professor would put up an image,

Profesor bi pokazao sliku

bold strokes of blues and yellows, and say, "Who's that?"

odvažnih plavih i žutih poteza, i rekao, "Tko je to?"

And I'd go, "That's Van Gogh. Clearly that is Van Gogh.

Rekao bih, "To je Van Gogh. Očito se radi o Van Goghu.

I got this."

Mogu ja ovo."

(Laughter)

(Smijeh)

I got a B in that class.

Imao sam četvorku iz tog predmeta.

For me, that was amazing.

Za mene je to bilo nevjerojatno.

In high school, let's just say I wasn't a great student. OK?

Recimo da u srednjoj školi nisam bio odličan učenik. OK?

In high school, my GPA was .65.

U srednjoj školi prosjek mi je bio .65.

(Laughter)

(Smijeh)

Decimal point first, six five.

Prvo decimalna točka, pa šest pet.

So me getting a B was huge, huge,

Moja je četvorka bila jako, jako velika stvar,

absolutely huge.

iznimno velika.

And because of the fact that I realized that I was able to learn things visually

I upravo zbog tog shvaćanja da mogu učiti vizualno,

that I couldn't learn in other ways,

da ne mogu učiti na druge načine,

this became my strategy, this became my tactic

to je postala moja strategija, moja taktika

for understanding everything else.

za shvaćanje svega.

I wanted to stay in this relationship. Things were going well.

Htio sam ostati u toj vezi. Sve je bilo dobro.

Odlučio sam ostati na satima povijesti umjetnosti.

I decided, let me keep taking these art history classes.

Nikad neću zaboraviti jedan od zadnjih satova povijesti umjetnosti.

One of the last art history classes, I will not forget, I will never forget.

It was one of those survey art history classes.

Radilo se o preglednim satovima povijesti umjetnosti.

Anybody ever have one of those survey art history classes,

Je li itko pohađao takve satove povijesti umjetnosti,

where they try to teach you the entire history of art

gdje te pokušaju naučiti cijelu povijest umjetnosti

in a single semester?

u jednom semestru?

I'm talking about cave paintings and Jackson Pollock

Govorim o špiljskim slikama i Jacksonu Pollocku

just crunched together all in the same --

zbijenim u jedno --

It doesn't really work, but they try anyway.

baš i ne funkcionira, no svejedno pokušavaju.

Well, at the beginning of the semester,

Pa, na početku sam semestra

pregledao knjigu,

I looked at the book,

and in this 400-page book was about a 14-page section

i u toj je knjizi od 400 stranica dio od 14 stranica

that was on black people in painting.

o crncima u slikama.

Now, this was a crammed in section

To je bilo nagomilano poglavlje

that had representations of black people in painting

o prikazima crnaca u slikama

and black people who painted.

i crncima slikarima.

It was poorly curated, let's just put it that way.

Recimo samo da je bilo loše organizirano.

(Laughter)

(Smijeh)

Nonetheless I was really excited about it,

Svejedno sam bio uzbuđen,

because in all the other classes that I had,

jer ni pod jednim drugim satom

we didn't even have that conversation.

nismo imali taj razgovor.

We didn't talk about it at all.

Nismo o tome uopće pričali.

So imagine my surprise

Možete zamisliti moje iznenađenje

when I get to class

kad nas je na satu,

and on the day that we're supposed to go over that particular chapter,

onog dana kad smo trebali razgovarati o tom poglavlju,

my professor announces,

profesorica obavijestila,

"We're going to skip this chapter today

"Preskočit ćemo današnje poglavlje

because we do not have time to go through it."

jer nemamo vremena proći ga."

"Whoa, I'm sorry, hold on, professor, professor.

"Hej, oprostite, pričekajte, profesorice.

I'm sorry. This is a really important chapter to me.

Oprostite. Ovo mi je stvarno bitno poglavlje.

Are we going to go over it at any point?"

Hoćemo li ga uopće preći?"

"Titus, we don't have time for this."

"Tituse, nemamo vremena za ovo."

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry,

"Oprostite, oprostite, oprostite,

please, I really need to understand.

molim vas, stvarno trebam razumjeti.

Clearly the author thinks that this is significant.

Očito autor misli da je značajno.

Why are we skipping over this?"

Zašto ga onda preskačemo?"

"Tituse, nemam vremena za ovo."

"Titus, I do not have time for this."

"OK, last question, I'm really sorry here.

"OK, zadnje pitanje, oprostite.

When can we talk, because we need to talk."

Kad možemo pričati, jer moramo pričati."

(Laughter)

(Smijeh)

I went to her office hours.

Kasnije sam ju posjetio.

I ended up getting kicked out of her office.

Izbačen sam iz njenog ureda.

I went to the dean.

Otišao sam dekanu.

The dean finally told me, "I can't force her to teach anything."

Dekan mi je naposljetku rekao, "Ne mogu ju prisiliti da nešto predaje."

And I knew in that moment if I wanted to understand this history,

U tom sam trenutku znao, želim li shvatiti ovu povijest,

if I wanted to understand the roles of those folks who had to walk,

želim li shvatiti uloge onih koji su morali hodati,

I was probably going to have to figure that out myself.

morat ću to shvatiti sam.

So ...

Pa ...

above you right here on the slide

iznad vas je slajd

is a painting by Frans Hals.

sa slikom Fransa Halsa.

This is one of the kinds of images

Ovakve su slike

that was in that chapter.

bile u tom poglavlju.

I taught myself how to paint

Naučio sam slikati

by going to museums and looking at images like this.

idući u muzeje i gledajući ovakve slike.

I want to show you something.

Želim vam nešto pokazati.

I made this.

Ovo sam ja naslikao.

I --

Ja --

(Applause)

(Pljesak)

I made some alterations.

Promijenio sam neke stvari.

You'll see there are some slight differences in the painting.

Vidjet ćete manje razlike među slikama.

All this art history that I had been absorbing

Sva ta povijest umjetnosti koju sam upijao

helped me to realize that painting is a language.

pomogla mi je shvatiti da je slikanje jezik.

There is a reason

Postoji razlog

why he is the highest in the composition here.

zbog kojeg je on najviši među svima.

There is a reason

Postoji razlog

why the painter is showing us this gold necklace here.

zbog kojeg nam slikar pokazuje ovu zlatnu ogrlicu.

He's trying to tell us something about the economic status

Pokušava nam nešto reći

o ekonomskom statusu ljudi u tim slikama.

of these people in these paintings.

Painting is a visual language

Slikanje je vizualan jezik

where everything in the painting

u kojem je sve u slici

is meaningful, is important.

značajno, važno.

It's coded.

Šifrirano je.

But sometimes, because of the compositional structure,

No nekad je, zbog kompozicije,

because of compositional hierarchy,

hijerarhije u kompoziciji,

it's hard to see other things.

teško vidjeti druge stvari.

This silk is supposed to tell us also that they have quite a bit of money.

Svila bi nam trebala pokazati da imaju puno novaca.

There's more written

Više je napisano

about dogs in art history

o psima u povijesti umjetnosti

than there are about this other character here.

nego o ovom liku ovdje.

Historically speaking, in research on these kinds of paintings,

Gledamo li povijest, istražujući ovakve slike,

I can find out more about the lace

više mogu saznati o čipki koju žena na ovoj slici nosi --

that the woman is wearing in this painting --

proizvođaču čipke -- nego o ovom liku ovdje,

the manufacturer of the lace -- than I can about this character here,

about his dreams, about his hopes,

o njegovim snovima, nadama,

about what he wanted out of life.

o njegovim ciljevima u životu.

I want to show you something.

Želim vam nešto pokazati.

I don't want you to think

Ne želim da mislite

that this is about eradication.

kako se ovdje radi o istrebljenju.

It's not.

Ne.

The oil that you saw me just put inside of this paint

Ono što sam upravo stavio u ovu boju

is linseed oil.

laneno je ulje.

It becomes transparent over time,

S vremenom postaje prozirno,

so eventually what's going to happen

što znači da će se eventualno

is these faces

ova lica

will emerge a little bit.

pojavljivati.

What I'm trying to do,

Pokušavam --

what I'm trying to show you,

želim vam pokazati kako pomaknuti svoj pogled,

is how to shift your gaze just slightly,

samo malo

just momentarily,

samo na tren,

just momentarily,

samo na tren.

to ask yourself the question,

Zapitajte se

why do some have to walk?

zašto neki moraju hodati?

What is the impact of these kinds of sculptures at museums?

Kakav učinak ovakve skulpture imaju u muzejima?

What is the impact of these kinds of paintings

Kakav je učinak ovakvih slika

on some of our most vulnerable in society,

na najranjivije u društvu?

seeing these kinds of depictions of themselves all the time?

Kako je vidjeti sebe prikazanog ovako?

I'm not saying erase it.

Ne kažem da je išta potrebno izbrisati.

We can't erase this history.

Ne možemo izbrisati povijest.

It's real. We have to know it.

Stvarno je. Moramo to znati.

I think of it in the same way

Razmišljam o tome kao što razmišljamo o --

we think of --

Let me step back a second.

Zaustavit ću se na tren.

You remember old-school cameras,

Sjećate li se starih fotoaparata,

where when you took a picture, you actually had to focus. Right?

koje ste trebali fokusirati kako biste nešto fotografirali. Zar ne?

You'd put the camera up,

Uzeli biste fotoaparat,

and if I wanted you in focus,

i ako sam htio tebe staviti u fokus,

I would move the lens a little to the left

pomaknuo bih objektiv ulijevo

and you would come forward.

i ti bi ušao u fokus.

Mogao bih objektiv pomaknuti udesno,

I could move the lens a little to the right,

and you would go back and the folks in the background would come out.

i ti bi spao u pozadinu, a ljudi iza ušli bi u fokus.

Pokušavam to ovdje učiniti.

I'm just trying to do that here.

I'm trying to give you that opportunity.

Želim vam dati tu priliku.

I'm trying to answer that question

Pokušavam odgovoriti na pitanje

that my son had.

svojeg sina.

I want to make paintings,

Želim stvarati slike,

I want to make sculptures

želim stvarati skulpture

that are honest,

koje su iskrene,

that wrestle with the struggles of our past

koje se bore s mukama naše prošlosti,

but speak to the diversity and the advances of our present.

no govore o raznovrsnosti i prednostima naše sadašnjosti.

And we can't do that by taking an eraser and getting rid of stuff.

Ne možemo to učiniti brisanjem i uklanjanjem.

That's just not going to work.

To neće funkcionirati.

I think that we should do it in the same way

Mislim da bismo trebali funkcionirati

the American Constitution works.

kao Ustav SAD-a.

When we have a situation

Dogodi li se

where we want to change a law in the American Constitution,

da želimo promijeniti zakon u Ustavu SAD-a,

we don't erase the other one.

ne obrišemo onaj prijašnji.

Alongside that is an amendment,

Pokraj njega stoji amandman,

something that says,

nešto što kaže,

"This is where we were, but this is where we are right now."

"Ovdje smo bili prije, no tu smo sada."

I figure if we can do that,

Vjerujem da bi nam činiti to pomoglo shvatiti nešto više

then that will help us understand a little bit

about where we're going.

o našoj budućnosti.

Thank you.

Hvala vam.

(Applause)

(Pljesak)