Why Creativity Matters in Times of Change | Stephanie Utz | TEDxTUM

Good afternoon, everybody. I know you had a long day, so let's do a little icebreaker together before we start. I want you to imagine that you are having your iPods or headphones with you. Please do put them on. And now, you're choosing your favorite song on your playlist, whatever it is, what comes to your mind. We push the play button, we close our eyes, and we hear the music. But I'm questioning, are you only listening to the music? Are you only listening to a certain text? Or do you probably recall a certain moment of your life? Maybe a special fond moment. Do you probably feel it in a call? Whatever it is, I'm pretty sure you would agree, you are feeling an emotion. You're feeling a certain energy. And that is exactly also what applies to art. Art is an emotion. Art is energy. And with my presentation, I would like to show you how this creativity actually leads us to bold vision and how bold visions lead to change. In my case, it was the change that 10 years ago now, I established Germany's first museum of urban art in the landscape, which is already well-known in Munich. But I thought it needed something fresh and new. So when I was invited to this forum, I was reading the headline, Now What? And actually, I was making up my mind what it could be that an art lover like me could bring along to the table to this topic amongst all the mathematicians, scientists, techies. And then it was this one association, maybe exactly the way it felt with the music that I had. It was the association with an artwork I really love. And coincidentally, it also has the same or similar name. It's called And What Now? It's actually an artwork by the artist called Herakut. They are well-known as their symbiosis of figurative painting and spray paint. And as you can see on the picture, there seems to be a person carrying around a mermaid. We don't know why. We don't even know what happened. But if you look at the person's face, you see the person is quite devastated. Seems like he or she is doing a heavy lifting. Seems to carry around a heavy burden. And it also seems as the person is nearly breaking down under this burden. As always in art, also, this motive is just a metaphor. To me, it is a metaphor of the current times we're in, times of uncertainty. The world is changing fast. We are having an unclear vision of future. We might feel disrupted. We might feel lost. We might feel anxious. And it's not only the way we feel today. I remember very well, and you too maybe, how this also felt during COVID. Let me share a personal story around that. You all remember very well, everything was shut down during COVID times. So was our museum. No visitors were allowed. And unfortunately, we just had installed a wonderful new exhibition a couple of days before, but we weren't allowed to reveal it to the public. So our team was sent home. I tried to work from home as well. But from time to time, I went back to the museum doing some security checks, and yeah, checking if everything is in the right place and what's in my post box. So when I was there, it was actually the very first time in my entire career that I had time on my own, sitting in an empty hall, just with the artworks around me. And I know it sounds weird, but I somehow started a certain dialogue, a dialogue with the artworks. And I realized I found details in the artworks that I have never spotted before, because for the very first time, I had the time to really observe, observe the artworks on display. And out of this period and this dialogue, I had actually several takeaways. Because when I was looking further on the situation we're in, I realized that I might feel alone at the moment, but in reality, I'm not alone, because this happened already before, if you're looking back in history. So individuals and societies have been going through times of change already. Secondly, I had the feeling I can't stop believing in art, because when you look back also in history, art was always an integral part of this change. And thirdly, I have to be patient. Honestly, that's a tough one for me. So being patient, because transformational change is not linear. It's a bumpy curve we're going through, and it takes a while, it takes patience. And lastly, I got aware that this is something big. Something big is happening, that I am, that we are all part of a certain period and a period of change and a new era. And isn't it thrilling that we can all be part of such an era and also shape and help shaping the times we're in? And this was the first time when I realized I'm part of a certain zeitgeist. But what is actually the so-called zeitgeist? Per definition, it's the cultural, intellectual, and moral spirit and climate of a certain era. But it needs challenges, it needs messengers, and it needs people who document and transport the zeitgeist we are talking about. And this is actually where artists come into the play. Because artists are the ones who are putting the fingers in the wound of the zeitgeist. And there's this overall phrase, which I think is very true. Societies shape artists, and artists shape our societies. So the zeitgeist for artists is something which is also kind of the working tool. And if you look back in history, and I would like to zoom decades back in time with you now, you find very good examples, actually, of artists who have already challenged the zeitgeist. For instance, if you zoom back into the Renaissance, there are figures like Michelangelo or Leonardo da Vinci who have been challenging religious topics and humanistic topics. The Vitruvian Man, as you can see up here, got the symbol of the Renaissance. It was the belief and the vision that humanism is the center of the universe. If you go further into the area of modernism, there have been people like Kaczynski or Picasso. They have challenged topics like urbanization, civilization, war, and technology. They have been breaking old forms, as you can also see in the picture of Picasso, called Vianica, which relates back to the Spanish Civil War. Or think about pop art culture. I'm pretty sure you're all familiar with Andy Warhol or Keith Haring. They have been tackling aspects in this era which are related to gender equality, consumerism, and civil rights. This picture, actually, called Campbell's Soup, is probably the most well-known by Andy Warhol when it comes to the criticizing of consumerism. And stepping to here and now, stepping into our era, it's the street art movement, which actually tackles and challenges the problems, social critical situations we're in, which are part of demonstrations, which are part of anti-war propaganda. One very well-known name along this is Banksy. And he actually created, 2003, a motive called Wrong War, which, by then, became the number one signage, the number one poster, in UK's biggest anti-war demonstration against the Iraq War. So street art, in this sense, is giving a face to disfection. Also, if we look at another motive from Banksy, the so-called flower thrower, it actually motivates the crowd to protest and to stand up for their rights. But in this case, in a friendly way, because as you can see, the stencil piece done by Banksy is not a riot throwing a Molotov cocktail. This riot is throwing a flower bouquet. Street art also can be mirror of resistance. Shepard Fairey, to name another very, very well-known street artist, for instance, created a motive called Revolutionary Woman. The interesting part in it is that it has some symbols also that relate to the Nelken Revolution, Carnation Revolution, which is the typical flower sticked into the weapon. But also decades later, this motive brings in a totally different aspect if you look into the context of the Arabian Spring. Also, we have an artist picked out which is called Mikalev, and he is tackling a totally different topic, but also a very tough and rough topic of our times. This motive is called Friendly Fire, and it is a terminology from the military, also known as blue on blue, which relates to the fact that soldiers do shoot their own soldiers by mistake. So a totally different way of reflecting the issues and probably also revealing things under the surface as we might have seen in the Renaissance. But nevertheless, it is always the same motivation. It's always the same driver. It's about challenging the area we're in and revealing the problems that we're facing. So what does this actually mean going forward? We as a museum, but also any other institutions, do have the role of being a preserver, being the preserver of a zeitgeist, and keeping the memories alive. And this is actually how we do it in our exhibitions. We're trying always to come up with a good and solid and well-balanced selection of motives that have been integral part of various areas. Why is this so important? It's actually even more important today than it ever has been, because times of uncertainty also meaning times for uncertainty in museums, particularly the public museums are facing restrictions and budgets, but they also face political strings that are trying to maneuver them in a certain direction. But it is our obligation, it is our role as curators and museums directors to keep resistant, not to change the narrative, not to get into the trap to become a decorative, nice show which has no meaning, which has no history, which has no criticism. So content is key. And we have to make sure that this remains for future generations. So keeping up the zeitgeist is what we stand for, is what we need to do as cultural institutions. So how does this now all go together with the question of what? What does this mean for you personally? It is actually the belief in creativity. It is the belief that art, by the way, in any form, if it is playing guitar, playing theater, singing, painting, I don't care, that art overall has the potential to free energy and to set visions alive. And I would like to invite you that in whatever field you are, whatever background you got, whatever work you do, please never give up believing in the power of creativity and please stick to that power, no matter how long it takes or how bumpy the path might be. Thank you all. Thank you.