Neo-Vandalism in Europe

Climate change threatens the future of the world. At the same time, attacks by groups calling themselves climate activists on the world's important cultural and artistic works cannot be stopped. Activists most recently targeted the Mona Lisa painting. Art Historian Burhan Kurtulmuş Aytoslu wrote about the vandalism targeting works of art in Europe.

Aytoslu's article is as follows:

Last week, an attack was carried out by climate activists on Leonardo Da Vinci's famous masterpiece, the Mona Lisa, one of the architects of the Renaissance. A woman who entered the Louvre Museum in Paris, the capital of France, threw cake at the painting, scattered rose petals on the floor, and was removed by security guards after giving a short speech about the climate crisis. 

This is not the first time the Mona Lisa painting has been attacked. Previously, attempts were made to damage the painting by throwing tea, stones, etc., at it. However, this attack stands out from the others because it was carried out as a continuation of the relentless climate activist attacks. 

If we look at the attacks on works of art carried out in the last two years, the prominent ones are as follows: attack on Botticelli's Primavera, attack on Umberto Boccioni's famous sculpture, attack on Raphael's famous Sistine Madonna, attack on Pablo Picasso's Massacre in Korea painting, pouring tomato soup on Van Gogh's Sunflowers painting, attack with mashed potatoes on Claude Monet's famous Haystacks work, attack on the Girl with a Pearl Earring painting, attack with vegetable puree on Vincent Van Gogh's famous painting, attack on two different Goya paintings at the Prado Museum in Madrid, attack on The Scream painting, attack with black paint on a Gustav Klimt painting in Austria…

The actions of the activists are highly debated, and we will try to explain what happened to these precious works from the perspective of art history. First of all, I must state that if the actions were intended to “draw attention,” they achieved their goal. But when considered through the claim that humans are changing the climate, are these actions useful for changing the world? Frankly, it is not possible to change the world by throwing food at famous paintings. In the period we call the Anthropocene, which began with the invention of the steam engine, humanity began to cause serious damage to the world. We are still continuing to harm the world. By the world, we actually mean humanity itself. We are consuming the world because of our uncontrolled and reckless activities such as the depletion of water resources, mega-cities, high carbon production, etc. We need to understand that we are actually living by borrowing from the next year every year. 

For humanity to make the world a more livable place, it needs to act according to the means at its disposal. It is useful to take a look at what humanity has spent its resources on to date. The world's biggest problem is nations seizing the labor of other nations. It sounds very abstract when put this way. World War I, World War II, Vietnam, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Yemen, Palestine, Egypt, Laos, Afghanistan, Ukraine, Cyprus… 

The last two centuries have been spent with wars started by Western nations to become the masters of the world. Look, we are still continuing to experience these wars. Think of Afghanistan; they have been under occupation for 40 years. Look at the Syrian war; they have been fighting for more than 10 years. Now, with what right will we expect environmentalism from these nations? Don't you think it is a very extreme attitude to engage in activism from European capitals for people who have no priority other than feeding themselves and surviving? Unfortunately, the whole world is currently forced to allocate the resources it would set aside for its future to weapons. Western climate activists who sincerely care about the world should take their hands off works of art and look for more realistic solutions. 

Of course, all these works are very valuable and unique from the perspective of art history and must be protected. However, none of them are more valuable than a human being. In this world, no object is more valuable than a human life. It is humans who give value to paintings and sculptures. I also want to draw attention to a void: why is there no art production based on the real problems and love of people today? 

Why are works of art with a climate crisis agenda not being produced? We live in a world where people die every day because of wars. Frankly, we do not see any paintings, sculptures, or songs that share these pains or rebel against them in any significant way. Yes, activists seem to have found a good way to draw attention, but they also need to understand that the actions they take will not change anything.