Last week, Pope Francis met some 200 people from creative fields to commemorate the 50 years of the contemporary art section at the Vatican Museum.
On Friday last week, around 200 guests – including artists, filmmakers, and authors – gathered at the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican. The occasion was to celebrate five decades of the contemporary art section at the Vatican Museum. Guests included a plethora of renowned names, like author Jhumpa Lahiri, Italian actor Silvio Orlando and artist Anselm Kiefer and director Abel Ferrara.
Also invited were names that were sometimes controversial with the church, like artist Andres Serrano. Serrano has been a controversial figure ever since his 1978 photograph ‘Piss Christ’, which depicted a crucifix submerged in urine. However, Vatican officials have said that his inclusion was proof that the church is willing to engage with those they might not agree with. Serrano personally said he was thrilled to meet with the Pope and speak with him in Spanish.
In his interaction and speech, Pope Francis tried to make it clear that the church wants to work together with artists, whom he called true visionaries. He said: “You want to reveal reality also in its contradictions and in those things that it is more comfortable and convenient to keep hidden,” Francis said. “Like the biblical prophets, you confront things that at times are uncomfortable; you criticize today’s false myths and new idols, its empty talk, the ploys of consumerism, the schemes of power.”
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Pope Paul VI was the first pope in modern times to reach out to artists and try to recreate the same relationship that resulted in masterpieces of medieval Europe. In 1973, this resulted in the creation of the contemporary art section at the Vatican Museum. Over the years, the church has tried to engage in global art events like the Venice Biennale.
