Christian Caliandro: Why Art Must Reckon with Reality

In an opinion piece published on Artribune, Christian Caliandro argues that contemporary art has become inadequate in the face of current global crises—the pandemic and war. He critiques Maurizio Cattelan's work "You" as "totally useless," claiming it belongs to the cynical spirit of the 1990s and fails to address the brutal present. Caliandro calls for an art that merges with reality, speaking to human fears and loves with a new language, rather than retreating into self-referential games or social media-friendly aesthetics. He quotes Jonas Mekas on grasping life from within and insists that art must be "brutally" what it is: the most effective way humans express what it means to be alive.