Can art amend history? | Titus Kaphar

Prevodilac: Ivana Krivokuća Lektor: Tijana Mihajlović

I love museums.

Obožavam muzeje.

Have you guys ever been to the Natural History Museum?

Jeste li ikada bili u Prirodnjačkom muzeju?

In New York City?

U Njujorku?

(Applause)

(Aplauz)

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

Jedna od stvari koje radim je da vodim svoju decu u muzej.

Recently I took them to the Natural History Museum.

Nedavno sam ih odveo u Prirodnjački muzej.

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

Sa mnom su bila moja dva sina, Sabijan i Dabit.

And we go into the front entrance of the museum,

Ušli smo na prednji ulaz muzeja

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

i tu je bila neverovatna skulptura Tedija Ruzvelta.

You guys know which one I'm talking about.

Znate na koju mislim.

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

Tedi Ruzvelt sedi sa jednom rukom na konju,

bold, strong, sleeves rolled up.

hrabar, snažan, zavrnutih rukava.

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

Ne znam da li je golih grudi, ali stiče se takav utisak.

(Laughter)

(Smeh)

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

Sa njegove leve strane hoda Indijanac.

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

A sa njegove desne strane hoda Afroamerikanac.

And as we're moving up the stairs,

Kako idemo uz stepenice

getting closer to the sculpture,

i približavamo se skulpturi,

my oldest son, who's nine, says,

moj najstariji sin koji ima devet godina, kaže:

"Dad, how come he gets to ride,

„Tata, kako to da on jaše,

and they have to walk?"

a oni moraju da hodaju?“

It stopped me in my tracks.

To me je ukopalo.

It stopped me in my tracks.

Ukopalo me je u mestu.

There was so much history

Toliko je istorije

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

kroz koju bismo morali da prođemo da bih pokušao da to objasnim,

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

a to je svakako nešto što nastojim da radim sa njima.

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

To je pitanje koje verovatno nikada ne bih stvarno postavio.

But fundamentally what he was saying was,

U suštini, on je govorio:

"That doesn't look fair.

„To ne izgleda pravično.

Dad, that doesn't look fair.

Tata, to ne deluje pravedno.

And why is this thing that's so not fair

Zašto ova stvar koja je toliko nepravedna

sitting outside of such an amazing institution."

stoji ispred tako neverovatne ustanove?“

And his question got me wondering,

Ovo pitanje me je navelo na razmišljanje

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

o tome da li postoji način da popravimo naše javne skulpture,

our national monuments?

naše nacionalne spomenike?

Not erase them,

Ne da ih obrišemo,

but is there a way to amend them?

već da li postoji način da ih popravimo?

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

Ja nisam odrastao uz obilaske muzeja.

That's not my history.

Moja prošlost nije takva.

My mother was 15 years old when I was born.

Moja majka je imala 15 godina kada sam se rodio.

She is amazing.

Ona je neverovatna.

My father was struggling with his own things

Moj otac se mučio oko svojih ličnih stvari

for most of my life.

većim delom mog života.

If you really want to know the truth,

Ako hoćete baš da znate istinu,

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

jedini razlog što sam krenuo putem umetnosti je zbog jedne žene.

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

Bila je to neverovatna, fantastična, prelepa, pametna žena,

four years older than me,

četiri godine starija od mene,

and I wanted to go out with her.

a ja sam hteo da izađem sa njom.

But she said, "You're too young

Ali rekla mi je: „Previše si mlad

and you're not thinking about your future."

i ne razmišljaš o svojoj budućnosti.“

So I ran on down to the junior college,

Zato sam otrčao do više škole,

registered for some classes,

prijavio se na neke kurseve,

ran on back,

dotrčao nazad,

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

i u suštini sam rekao: „Sad razmišljam o svojoj budućnosti.“

(Laughter)

(Smeh)

"Can we go out?"

„Možemo li da izađemo?“

For the record, she's even more amazing.

Da se zna, bila je još neverovatnija.

I married her.

Oženio sam se njome.

(Applause)

(Aplauz)

So when I randomly ran down to the junior college

Tako da, kada sam otrčao nasumično do više škole

and registered for classes,

i prijavio se za časove,

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

nisam baš obraćao pažnju za šta se prijavljujem.

(Laughter)

(Smeh)

So I ended up with an art history class,

Tako sam završio na predavanjima istorije umetnosti,

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

a nisam znao baš ništa o istoriji umetnosti.

But something amazing happened when I went into that class.

Međutim, nešto neverovatno se dogodilo kada sam počeo da pohađam ta predavanja.

For the first time in my academic career,

Prvi put u mojoj akademskoj karijeri

my visual intelligence was required of me.

od mene se tražila vizuelna inteligencija.

For the first time.

Prvi put.

The professor would put up an image,

Profesor bi postavio sliku,

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

odvažne poteze plave i žute boje, i upitao bi: „Ko je to?“

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

A ja bih rekao: „To je Van Gog. Očigledno je da je to Van Gog.

I got this."

Sve mi je jasno.“

(Laughter)

(Smeh)

I got a B in that class.

Imao sam devetku na tom predmetu.

For me, that was amazing.

Za mene je to bilo neverovatno.

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

U srednjoj školi - može se reći da nisam bio sjajan učenik. Okej?

In high school, my GPA was .65.

U srednjoj školi je moj prosek bio 0,65.

(Laughter)

(Smeh)

Decimal point first, six five.

Prvo nula, zarez šest i pet.

So me getting a B was huge, huge,

Stoga je to što sam dobio devet za mene bilo velika stvar,

absolutely huge.

apsolutno velika.

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

A usled činjenice da sam shvatio da umem da učim vizuelno

that I couldn't learn in other ways,

ono što nisam mogao da saznam na drugi način,

this became my strategy, this became my tactic

ovo je postala moja strategija, moja taktika da razumem sve ostalo.

for understanding everything else.

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

Hteo sam da ostanem u ovoj vezi. Stvari su se dobro odvijale.

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

Rešio sam da nastavim da pohađam ova predavanja istorije umetnosti.

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

Jedno od poslednjih predavanja istorije umetnosti neću nikada zaboraviti.

It was one of those survey art history classes.

Bilo je to jedno od onih opštih predavanja.

Da li je neko od vas nekada išao na neko od tih opštih predavanja,

Anybody ever have one of those survey art history classes,

where they try to teach you the entire history of art

kada pokušaju da vas nauče celokupnoj istoriji umetnosti

in a single semester?

za samo jedan semestar?

I'm talking about cave paintings and Jackson Pollock

Govorim o pećinskom slikarstvu i Džeksonu Poloku

just crunched together all in the same --

strpanim zajedno u istom -

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

To baš i ne funkcioniše, ali svakako pokušavaju.

Well, at the beginning of the semester,

Pa, na početku semestra,

I looked at the book,

pogledao sam knjigu

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

i u toj knjizi od 400 strana bila je oblast od oko 14 strana

that was on black people in painting.

koja je bila o crncima u slikarstvu.

Now, this was a crammed in section

To je bilo nabijeno u poglavlju

that had representations of black people in painting

koje je sadržalo prikaze crnaca na slikama

and black people who painted.

i crnaca koji su slikali.

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

Bilo je loše organizovano, hajde da tako kažemo.

(Laughter)

(Smeh)

Nonetheless I was really excited about it,

Ipak sam bio veoma uzbuđen zbog toga,

because in all the other classes that I had,

jer na ostalim predavanjima koja sam pohađao

we didn't even have that conversation.

nismo čak ni razgovarali o tome.

We didn't talk about it at all.

Uopšte nismo pričali o tome.

So imagine my surprise

Zato zamislite moje iznenađenje

when I get to class

kada sam stigao na predavanje

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

i onog dana kada je trebalo da pređemo baš to poglavlje,

my professor announces,

moja profesorka je objavila:

"We're going to skip this chapter today

„Preskočićemo ovo poglavlje danas

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

jer nemamo vremena da ga pređemo.“

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

„Čekajte, izvinjavam se, pričekajte, profesorka, profesorka.

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

Izvinite. Ovo je za mene zaista bitno poglavlje.

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

Hoćemo li ga preći u nekom trenutku?“

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

„Tajtuse, nemamo vremena za ovo.“

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

„Izvinite, izvinite, izvinite, izvinite,

molim vas, zaista moram da razumem.

please, I really need to understand.

Očigledno da autor smatra da je ovo značajno.

Clearly the author thinks that this is significant.

Why are we skipping over this?"

Zašto preskačemo ovo?“

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

„Tajtuse, nemam vremena za to.“

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

„U redu, poslednje pitanje, stvarno se izvinjavam.

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

Kada možemo da razgovaramo? Jer moramo da razgovaramo.“

(Laughter)

(Smeh)

I went to her office hours.

Otišao sam kod nje na konsultacije.

I ended up getting kicked out of her office.

Na kraju sam izbačen iz njene kancelarije.

I went to the dean.

Otišao sam kod dekana.

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

Dekan mi je na kraju rekao: „Ja ne mogu da je nateram da nešto predaje.“

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

Tog trenutka sam znao da, ako hoću da razumem ovu istoriju,

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

ako hoću da razumem ulogu onih ljudi koji su morali da hodaju,

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

verovatno ću to morati sam da otkrijem.

So ...

I tako...

above you right here on the slide

Ovde iznad vas na slajdu

is a painting by Frans Hals.

je slika Fransa Halsa.

This is one of the kinds of images

To je jedna od slika

that was in that chapter.

koja je bila u tom poglavlju.

I taught myself how to paint

Sam sam sebe naučio da slikam

by going to museums and looking at images like this.

odlazeći u muzeje i posmatrajući ovakve slike.

I want to show you something.

Želim da vam nešto pokažem.

I made this.

Ovo sam ja napravio.

I --

Ja -

(Applause)

(Aplauz)

I made some alterations.

Uneo sam neke izmene.

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

Videćete da postoje male razlike na slici.

All this art history that I had been absorbing

Celokupna ta istorija umetnosti koju sam upijao

helped me to realize that painting is a language.

pomogla mi je da uvidim da je slika jezik.

There is a reason

Postoji razlog

why he is the highest in the composition here.

zbog čega je on najviši na kompoziciji.

There is a reason

Postoji razlog

why the painter is showing us this gold necklace here.

zašto nam slikar prikazuje ovu zlatnu ogrlicu ovde.

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

Pokušava da nam kaže nešto o ekonomskom statusu

ovih ljudi na slici.

of these people in these paintings.

Painting is a visual language

Slikarstvo je vizuelni jezik,

where everything in the painting

pri čemu je sve na slici

is meaningful, is important.

smisleno i značajno.

It's coded.

Šifrovano je.

But sometimes, because of the compositional structure,

Ali ponekad, zbog strukture kompozicije,

because of compositional hierarchy,

zbog hijerarhije kompozicije,

it's hard to see other things.

teško je videti druge stvari.

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

Ta svila takođe treba da nam kaže da imaju poprilično novca.

There's more written

Više je zapisano

about dogs in art history

o psima u istoriji umetnosti

than there are about this other character here.

nego o ovom liku ovde.

Historically speaking, in research on these kinds of paintings,

Istorijski rečeno, pri istraživanju ovakvih slika,

I can find out more about the lace

mogu saznati više o čipki

that the woman is wearing in this painting --

koju nosi žena na ovoj slici -

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

o proizvođaču čipke - nego o ovom liku ovde,

about his dreams, about his hopes,

o njegovim snovima, o njegovim nadama,

about what he wanted out of life.

o tome šta je želeo u životu.

I want to show you something.

Hteo bih da vam pokažem nešto.

I don't want you to think

Ne bih da pomislite

that this is about eradication.

da se ovde radi o eliminaciji.

It's not.

Ne radi se o tome.

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

Ulje koje ste videli da stavljam na boju

is linseed oil.

je laneno ulje.

It becomes transparent over time,

Vremenom postaje providno,

so eventually what's going to happen

pa će na kraju

is these faces

ova lica

will emerge a little bit.

postepeno pojavljivati.

What I'm trying to do,

Ono što pokušavam da uradim,

what I'm trying to show you,

što pokušavam da vam pokažem,

is how to shift your gaze just slightly,

jeste kako da samo malčice pomerite svoj pogled,

just momentarily,

samo na trenutak,

just momentarily,

samo na trenutak,

to ask yourself the question,

kako biste se zapitali

why do some have to walk?

zašto neki moraju da hodaju.

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

Kakav je uticaj ovakvih skulptura u muzejima?

What is the impact of these kinds of paintings

Kakav je uticaj ovakvih slika

on some of our most vulnerable in society,

na neke od naših najugroženijih u društvu,

seeing these kinds of depictions of themselves all the time?

stalnog gledanja ovakvih njihovih prikaza?

I'm not saying erase it.

Ne kažem da ih izbrišete.

We can't erase this history.

Ne možemo obrisati ovu istoriju.

It's real. We have to know it.

Ona je stvarna. Moramo je znati.

I think of it in the same way

Razmišljam o njoj na isti način

we think of --

na koji mislimo o -

Let me step back a second.

Da se vratim unazad na sekundu.

You remember old-school cameras,

Sećate se starih kamera,

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

kod kojih ste, kada ste slikali, morali da fokusirate, je l' tako?

You'd put the camera up,

Podigli biste kameru,

and if I wanted you in focus,

i ako bih hteo fokus na vama,

I would move the lens a little to the left

pomerio bih objektiv malo ulevo

and you would come forward.

i vi biste došli napred.

Mogao bih da pomerim objektiv malo udesno

I could move the lens a little to the right,

i vi biste otišli unazad, a ljudi u pozadini napred.

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

Samo pokušavam da to uradim ovde.

I'm just trying to do that here.

I'm trying to give you that opportunity.

Pokušavam da vam dam tu priliku.

I'm trying to answer that question

Pokušavam da odgovorim na to pitanje

that my son had.

koje je moj sin postavio.

I want to make paintings,

Želim da slikam slike,

I want to make sculptures

da pravim skulpture

that are honest,

koje su iskrene,

that wrestle with the struggles of our past

koje vode borbu sa bitkama naše prošlosti,

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

ali se pozivaju na raznolikost i napretke naše sadašnjosti.

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

A to ne možemo tako što uzmemo gumicu i otarasimo se nekih stvari.

That's just not going to work.

To tako neće ići.

I think that we should do it in the same way

Mislim da to treba da uradimo na isti način

the American Constitution works.

na koji funkcioniše američki ustav.

When we have a situation

Kada imamo situaciju

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

u kojoj želimo da promenimo zakon u američkom ustavu,

we don't erase the other one.

ne brišemo onaj drugi.

Alongside that is an amendment,

Pored toga je amandman,

something that says,

nešto što kaže:

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

„Ovde smo bili, a ovde smo sada.“

I figure if we can do that,

Mislim da, ako to možemo da uradimo,

then that will help us understand a little bit

to će nam onda pomoći da razumemo

about where we're going.

kuda smo se zaputili.

Thank you.

Hvala.

(Applause)

(Aplauz)