For humane world, kids should access art early: Portuguese artiste

Governments should promote the arts and exhibitions and children should have access to art forms if we want a society which is evolved and sensitive in the future, says celebrated Portuguese visual artiste Vasco Araujo, who has staged a unique series of video performances in Goa.

Speaking to IANS, Araujo, whose solo show comprised of four pieces of video art, said technology should not be seen as something which stands in the way of art, but a medium which can be used by the artiste to best relate to a concept which he or she wants to speak about.

"I feel most people in the world are not fortunate enough to go and see an exhibition maybe they don't have the money or even the time. That's what I think governments should work towards.

"That art in general - dance, music, visual art, architecture - should be for the whole of humanity. Art should be understood and accessible to all," he says on the sidelines of his exhibition 'Hereditas' (Heritage) at the Sunaparanta - Goa Centre for the Arts.

Araujo's solo exhibition comprised of four videos Hereditas, Insula Telos and Retrato which deal with human complexities dealt in video format.

The exhibit Retrato (Portrait in Portuguese) for example is a solemn video about memory; the memory of a place, a home, a family conveyed through the shooting of several portraits, reproductions of paintings by well known Portuguese painter Eduardo Malta.

"I use various mediums that best relate to the concept I want to achieve or the ideas I want to speak about. Videos use of the language of cinema. People often feel that painting or sculpture is a classical art form.

"But it's just a different medium. There is no classical or modern art. I think there are classical or modern ideas," says Araujo, who unique work has been exhibited across Europe and North America.

A trained opera singer and heavily influenced by Greek tragedies, Araujo said in order to build a more humane and sensitive world, a liking for the arts has to be inculcated at a very young age.

"I feel every child should go to a museum, should experience music and dance performances and should be involved in various art forms. Because that will change our future, especially what the child will be like when it grows into an adult.

The personality, the attitude, the perspective, everything will change if a child is exposed to the arts. They will be more evolved and sensitive individuals," he says.