“The allotted function of art is not, as is often assumed, to put across ideas, to propagate thoughts, to serve as example. The aim of art is to prepare a person for death, to plough and harrow his soul, rendering it capable of turning to good."
- Andrei Tarkovsky,
An unkind critic might say that's why Tarkovsky's films seem so purgatorial.
ReplyDeleteFor me, this quote lines up with the Sontag quote on here a while ago. Art is to be experienced rather than understood. Altho Tarkovsky's take is fundamentally more religious in nature - as you might expect.
"Touched by a masterpiece, a person begins to hear in himself that
same call of truth which prompted the artist to his creative act. When
a link is established between the work and its beholder, the latter
experiences a sublime, purging trauma. Within that aura which
unites masterpieces and audience, the best sides of our souls are
made known, and we long for them to be freed. In those moments we recognise and discover ourselves, the unfathomable depths of our own potential, and the furthest reaches of our emotions"
https://monoskop.org/images/d/dd/Tarkovsky_Andrey_Sculpting_in_Time_Reflections_on_the_Cinema.pdf