The video and artworks by Aleksandra Mir depict a conversation between the artist and Galileo Galilei about the convergence of religion and science. Mir uses religious iconography and depictions of space travel to explore where and how religion and science intersect. The exhibition and video seek to stimulate discussion about the roles of the scientist and religion in understanding the world.
4. THE EXHIBITION
-Combination of short film and paintings( from Aleksandra Mir’s
The Dream and the Promise collection).
-Religious iconography meets space travel
-Where and how do religion and science converge?
-A “conversation” with Galileo Galilei to elucidate this ^
5. THE VIDEO
BEFORE AFTER
Aleksandra Mir (b. 1967), still from The Seduction of Galileo Galilei, 2011. Video,
color, sound; 16:33 min. Commissioned by Mercer Union, Toronto. Collection of the
artist, Mary Boone Gallery, New York, and Galeria Joan
6. LESSONS IN GRAVITY
-A demonstration of gravity becomes much more than
a fun experiment
- Is this art?
-Art is fleeting vs. Art captures the moment
-The work that all of these people put into act,
only to repeat the act once more.
8. THE MAN OF SCIENCE
-Galileo
-Social responsibility of the
scientist
-Determinism
-Answers to the questions
that spirituality can not
answer
Portrait of Galileo Galilei by Justus Sustermans painted in 1636. National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London.
10. SO WHAT?
-Religion is a system of control; what about science?
-Is science a religion? Is religion a science?
-”When we have found all the meanings and lost all
the mysteries, we will be alone on an empty shore.” 1
-Can science and technology appease the
imagination that strives for so much?
1 Arcadia by Tom Stoppard ; Scene six, page 109
11. CONCLUSION
-The man of science vs. the man of faith => forever locked in struggle
-Science and religion both strive to understand the world
-Mir uses her own form of art to express these ideas in an almost
minimalistic way. She uses a form of satire to diffuse the gravity of the debate.
-Do you believe that this is worthwhile art? Yes.