Читать книгу Inseminations - Juhani Pallasmaa - Страница 16

In today's consumerist culture we are misled to believe that the qualities of art and architecture arise from expression of the artist's or architect's persona. However, as the philosopher Maurice Merleau‐Ponty writes: ‘We do not come to look at a work of art, we come to look at the world according to it’.¹⁸ In a late interview Balthus, one of the greatest figurative painters of last century, makes a thought‐provoking comment on artistic expression: ‘Modernity, which began in the true sense with the Renaissance, determined the tragedy of art. The artist emerged as an individual and the traditional way of painting disappeared. From then on, the artist sought to express his inner world, which is a limited universe: he tried to place his personality in power and used paintings as a means of self‐expression. But great painting has to have universal meaning. This is sadly no longer so today and this is why I want to give painting back its lost universality and anonymity, because the more anonymous painting is, the more real it is’.¹⁹ In his work and teaching, the dignified Finnish designer, Kaj Franck, also sought anonymity; in his view the designer's persona should not dominate the experience of the object. In my view, the same criterium applies fully to architecture; profound architecture arises from facts, causalities and experiences of life, not from personal artistic inventions. As Alvaro Siza, one of the greatest architects of our time argues: ‘Architects do not invent anything, they just transform conditions’. In a television interview in 1972, Alvar Aalto made an unexpected confession: ‘I don't think there's so much difference between reason and intuition. Intuition can sometimes be extremely rational. […] It is the practical objectives of constructions that give me my intuitive point of departure, and realism is my guiding star. […] Realism usually provides the strongest stimulus to my imagination’.²⁰

In my own work, I have always wanted to pull myself away from the work when it is finished. The work needs to express the beauty of the world and human existence, not any idiosyncratic ideas of mine. This call for anonymity does not imply lack of emotion and feeling. Meaningful design re‐mythicizes, re‐animates and re‐eroticizes our relationship with the world. I wish my designs to be sensuous and emotive, but not to express my emotions.