damien hirst

you got to love art!

A special "world recession edition" artwork by Damien Hirst.

Art is one of the most praised activities a human being is capable of. Art is in a way what shows the true value of the human kind and at the same time it's the reflection of the world we have created. Art is something valuable and precious. Art is the soul of our existence.

But how many people own art? And how many people own significant works of art? Not only those works which made history but also those which are defining and marking our present. How many people can afford to pay thousands or even millions of dollars to own an important piece of art? If art is so important for the human kind and so valuable then why is it at the same time so unattainable? Why is art so not part of this world? Why is art so exclusive and only meant for the rich? Why did we turn art into nothing more than an asset?

The only people who seem to be able to afford to consume the best that art can offer are the rich collectors for whom art is a little more than a matter of a good investment. And maybe soon there will be more art in the banks than in the art galleries and museums. Is art nothing but a game of prestige?

I know that asking all these questions is futile. Our world is what it is and hardly anything could ever change that. And I am not here to bring a solution but merely a reflection. I don't want to change the way things work. I want to exploit it.

I believe that we all got to love art. But we can only do that if art is something accessible and affordable to us. We can never love what is kept away from us. And so I decided to give everyone a chance to own a piece of art for only 1€ hoping that everyone would get a piece of it and in this way bring art back to the world. At least in a symbolic sense. And this will also make the art be valuable not for its price tag but for how many people would own it. Because art is the most valuable when it belongs to everyone of us. Art doesn't need to be expensive to be valuable or to be art in the first place.

Most of the people love to buy things. Our society is based on consumerism. And art should acknowledge that and use it to give this world a meaningful purpose. Why should people only be addicted to buying meaningless things? Art should be the most affordable product one could buy. Art should become part of the mass consumption. Art should become viral. Art should be cheap. Art should be so cheap that if one couldn't afford to buy anything else he or she should still be able to afford to buy art. Art should cost only 1€.

But then not to upset the rich people too much I also added the expensive version of my inexpensive piece of art. Because everyone got to love art!