The calling of art is to extract us from our daily reality, to bring us to a hidden truth that's difficult to access - to a level that's not material but spiritual.
Interpretation
Art serves to elevate us beyond everyday life, revealing deeper spiritual truths.
Abbas Kiarostami's quote emphasizes the power of art to transcend mundane experiences and connect us with profound, often intangible truths. It suggests that through artistic expression, we can access deeper layers of reality that are not bound by material existence, encouraging a more spiritual and introspective perspective on life.
In practice
This quote can be used in an art exhibition opening speech to highlight the transformative power of art.
Digital photography is, by definition, unfinished. You don't feel that after every 24 or 36 shots you have to change your film - you know you can go on for ever if you want. You can see the result immediately, and find out if your original idea is worth going on with or not, whether it can be corrected, whether it can be improved.
When I talk to some of the younger filmmakers, they are so worried about their films that, eventually, this state of being worried reflects itself in and helps the final work. Whereas, with projects that are meticulously planned, you look at the end result and it is full of emptiness.
From my very first movie, what was my concentration, my inspiration, was I didn't want to narrate something, I didn't want to tell a story. I wanted to show something, I wanted for them to make their own story from what they were seeing.
Good cinema is what we can believe, and bad cinema is what we can't believe.
As film-makers, it is very important for us to find common ground between cultures, and maybe that's less the case for politicians who benefit more from finding the conflicts and differences between us.
Cinema gives you the opportunity to be both a grandparent and a grandchild whereas in life you cannot be both at the same time.
We took away your art because we thought it would reveal your souls. Or to put it more finely, we did it to prove you had souls at all.
There's obviously nothing wrong with selling your art - only an idiot with a trust fund would tell you otherwise. But it's confusing to know how far you should take it.
Bad Gardens copy, good gardens create, great gardens transcend. What all great gardens have in common are their ability to pull the sensitive viewer out of him or herself and into the garden, so completely that the separate self-sense disappears entirely, and at least for a brief moment one is ushered into a nondual and timeless awareness. A great garden, in other words, is mystical no matter what its actual content.
People love mystery, and that is why they love my paintings.
To write something, you have to risk making a fool of yourself.
I'm an engineer. I see myself as a toolmaker and the musicians are my customers... They use my tools.
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