Photography – Galleries & Diaries

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Works of art, unlike those of science, have no practical goals in any material sense. Art is meta-language, with the help of which people try to communicate with one another; to impart the information about themselves and assimilate the experience of others. Again, this has to do not with practical advantage but with realizing the idea of love, the meaning of which is in sacrifice: the very antithesis of pragmatism. I simply cannot believe that an artist can ever work for the sake of ‘self expression’. Self expression is meaningless unless it meets with a response. For the sake of creating a spiritual bond with the others it can only be an agonizing process, one that involves no practical gain. Ultimately, it is an act of sacrifice. But surely it cannot be worth the effort merely for the sake of hearing one’s own echo.

- From "Sculpting in Time" by Andrei Tarkovsky