Catharsis: Human Fragility and Aspects of Purification in a Corona Inspired Exhibition – a Curatorial Case
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.18533/jah.v10i09.2144Keywords:
Covid 19; Purification rites; Catharsis; Platonic Philosophy; Israeli ArtAbstract
This study focuses on an exhibition entitled – Purity/Purification/Pure, which engaged with questions regarding the condition of humanity in light of the present Covid 19 pandemic. Most of the works displayed in this exhibition were not created during the Covid 19 outbreak, but during the years preceding it. The context of the present pandemic was arrived at through the curatorial work.
Catharsis is an Aristotelian concept, defined as a tragic action happening to an individual, and purifying him through feelings of fear and compassion. "Purification" is a term particularly related to in Antiquity, and hence to the concept of catharsis. In affinity with Classical reception studies, the analysis and interpretation of the works are supported here by ancient literary and philosophical sources such as the Poetics by Aristotle, the Symposium and Phaedrus by Plato, the Enneads by Plotinus, and others.
This study focuses on several aspects of the corona pandemic and the concept of 'Catharsis' that were reflected in the exhibition: Birth, death, and human fragility; the validity of purification rites in the present era; and nature and its degeneration or annihilation by humankind.
The main conclusions deriving from the exhibition and this study is that the human need for purity and purification is a primordial one and has never ceased to be the focus of a basic desire of humanity. However, the present pandemic appears to be a warning for humanity against its own extinction if it continues on its degenerate path, without any possibility of recovery or obtaining purification.
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