Regarding the Pain of Others



Artists know ghosts well. They also know the language of the ghosts.

The artist knows of this by hearing the cry of the silent, sensing the suffering of others, and helping us to hear it too.

Munch's "The Scream" is the Mona Lisa of modern times. While the Mona Lisa reflects a Renaissance ideal of peace and self-control, Munch somehow evokes feelings of anxiety and uncertainty.

Until now, we have perceived The Scream as an autobiographical work. It has been said that Munch created a work with a style that could destroy the integrity of the human being with the death of his mother, the difficulties he experienced, mental or psychological problems, and the sound he heard at one time.

Until now, it has always been thought that Munch portrayed his own morbid experience in his works. He is said to have experienced a horror of insanity that plagued his sister Laura.

We interpreted the work as expressing the agony of the destruction of human personality.
The work received intense criticism when it was first seen and sparked controversy over Munch's mental health. According to Munch's diaries, these discussions had been very upsetting.
The painting "can only be made by a madman." It is said that he wrote the sentence himself.

But Munch said it would be hypocritical to see only the beautiful aspects of life. He managed to change the painful and difficult aspects of life.

No image, no work of art, is mute; a person like Munch, who has all the screams locked in his chest, can leave behind a deep cry or a trace with the rippling noise of his silence.

Let's say you don't have any explanation about the Scream painting; let's say you don't know anything about this piece and you are even encountering it for the first time. At first glance, we are uncomfortable with the uneasy character standing in front. We think that something is not right, with the expression of fear, anxiety, surprise, and insanity on his face. What is he doing? What is this character living in? Under the yellow, orange, and red sky, he stands in the middle of the bridge, both hands raised to the sides of his head, his eyes wide open, and he bursts out with a blood-curdling scream.

The words that describe this work are chaos and apocalyptic moments.

The chaos reflects the exact moment of the apocalypse.

We all screamed, but Munch's scream was loud enough for all humanity to hear.

The figures' extraordinary look, stance, and body curve are in stark contrast with the "straight" figures that appear just to the left and continue on the road. It is obvious that this figure is in a very different mood than the other two people in the background.

One of the most influential and striking works of the Expressionism movement, The Scream, exhibits the main features of the Expressionism movement. With brush strokes, use of color, and distortion of forms, the expression of human nature and emotions rather than physical realities is achieved in this way.

While expressionists tend to picture what they see in their minds, Donald Olson, a professor of physics and astronomy at Texas State University, and some contemporary researchers speculate why Munch was inspired by the screaming figure.

What Olson found revealed that Munch must've been onto something with the red-orange sky depiction.

Airborne debris from the artist's devastating eruption at Krakatoa in present-day Indonesia in 1883 and 1884 caused the Norwegian coast to appear blood orange and red at dawn and dusk.

It was one of the most devastating natural disasters recorded in history. About 40,000 people died on the nearby islands. People were burned to death or destroyed by tsunamis. Imagine an explosion four times more powerful than Chornobyl; that sound traveled 5,000 km. It's a great scream, and it was heard from almost a tenth of the world.

Researchers analyzed meteorological reports and newspaper articles about twilight flares in Norway in November 1883 and February 1884 and pinpointed the exact location where Munch reportedly was in Oslo.

This is exactly how the Norwegian coast looked over this bridge when viewed from its side, perhaps viewed by Munch, which was reflected in the press.

Bad events don't always have bad consequences. The projection of this tragic event on the artist led to the emergence of this multicolored work of art.

This explosion, which was reflected in many works, was the cry of all the people whose voices were cut off and left an indelible mark on our ears.

Perhaps all powerful works of art aimed to resurrect the memory by taking on its crisis through transference and transforming it into a ghoul or ghost through consciousness.

When the artist listens to his inner voice, he can hear the imaginary voices of the victims, even their screams, as if it were his own inner voice.

The artist can hear the imaginary voices of the political, nationalist, racist, colonialist, capitalist, sexist, and totalitarian forms of those who are already dead, those who are not yet born, wars, massacres, and victims, as a requirement of the desire for justice, just like this sad scream that inspired Munch.

Munch's cry did not only affect the expressionists but had an effect on all the artists that came after him and even became a part of popular culture.
While expressionists tend to picture what they see in their minds, Donald Olson, a professor of physics and astronomy at Texas State University, and some contemporary researchers speculate why Munch was inspired by the screaming figure.
Airborne debris from the artist's devastating eruption at Krakatoa in present-day Indonesia in 1883 and 1884 caused the Norwegian coast to appear blood orange and red at dawn and dusk.
It was one of the most devastating natural disasters recorded in history. About 40,000 people died on the nearby islands. People were burned to death or destroyed by tsunamis. Imagine an explosion four times more powerful than Chornobyl; that sound traveled 5,000 km. It's a great scream, and it was heard from almost a tenth of the world.
Researchers analyzed meteorological reports and newspaper articles about twilight flares in Norway in November 1883 and February 1884 and pinpointed the exact location where Munch reportedly was in Oslo. This is exactly how the Norwegian coast looked over this bridge when viewed from its side, which was reflected in the press.
Bad events don't always just have bad consequences. The projection of this tragic event on the artist led to the emergence of this multicolored work of art.
This explosion, which was reflected in many works, was the cry of all the people whose voices were cut off and left an indelible mark on our ears.
Bad events don't always just have bad consequences.
Perhaps all powerful works of art aimed to resurrect the memory by taking on its crisis through transference and transforming it into a ghoul or ghost through consciousness.When the artist listens to his inner voice, he can hear the imaginary voices of the victims, even their screams, as if it were his own inner voice. The artist can hear the imaginary voices of the political, nationalist, racist, colonialist, capitalist, sexist, and totalitarian forms of those who are already dead, those who are not yet born, wars, massacres, and victims, as a requirement of the desire for justice, just like this sad scream that inspired Munch. When the artist listens to his inner voice, he can hear the imaginary voices of the victims, even their screams, as if they were his own inner voice. The artist can hear the imaginary voices of the political, nationalist, racist, colonialist, capitalist, sexist, and totalitarian forms of those who are already dead, those who are not yet born, wars, massacres, and victims, as a requirement of the desire for justice, just like that sad scream that inspired Munch.
———————-
Suppose we see this work for the first time.
The words used to describe the work are: Apocalypse, Chaos, and Scream
I think this work was not done by a lonely madman; I think it reflected wisdom bearing the traces of the working age.
Looking back, we see that the first cries always came from prophets, saints, artists, and philosophers.
———The words that describe this work are chaos and apocalyptic moments. The chaos reflects the exact moment of the apocalypse.
The apocalypse is coming. Qiyam means "to stand up, to stand, to stand before the bow of the prayer, to attempt a task, to start, to rise up, to rise up after rebellion or death."
Resurrection means to resurrect, to resist, to stand up, to rise up, to rebel. A kind of resurrection of the body after death. In other words, accepting your own mortality and standing up means waking up while sleeping, warning, and working on the front lines.—-It is a desperation that must be heard, like a cry to the radiant God through the cracks of the mask of personality. The echo of silence - "Geläut des Stille" - resonates there, no doubt.The echo of someone else's cry is felt in the heart of the other, and the pain at the other end of the world makes me uneasy - being close to another person, even if it is not our concern, the other's cry is heard or understood as a requirement of responsibility, even if it does not come and touch us one day.
Bauman puts it this way in the age we live in. Now we all live on floating, slippery floors. The ground that none of us has stepped on is not solid. An event in one part of the world can affect us in an instant. He said we should wake up. Dear Bauman, if his life had been enough to see the virus, which was the gift of the genie to the world, he would see how he was right.
Munch's cry was made to awaken humanity. The presence of the other, the feeling of the pain of his pain, is my responsibility to him: to get close, to be the protector of the other, even to be the protector of his brother, according to Levinas, is to be his hostage. Responsibility does not come from the fraternity, but fraternity means that our responsibility for others comes before our freedom.
Levinas reveals his subjectivity in this responsibility and does not highlight any form that protects himself or equips him with a measure. Such is the holocaust awakening. "I am dust and ashes," said Abraham as he became an intercessor for Sodom; On the other hand, with even greater humility, Moses asked, "What are we?" said.
This is a manifestation of morality or asceticism, which not only devalues the world for man. It devalues its own existence. There is no reason to see your existence as nothing, not to conflict with anyone, to become reluctant and to be offended by the other.
To be able to stand on the side of the powerless at the expense of ignoring oneself by getting rid of the central position of the subject as denuded. Levinas deals with this sense of responsibility with a stronger commitment than death. Death;. In finitude, it determines a destiny it interrupts, whereas the tomb is not a refuge, a place of begging for forgiveness. Believe me; you should avoid passivity.
In "God and Philosophy", Levinas talked about the subject and the other, the face of the other, responsibility instead of violence, and the asymmetrical relationship, and he spoke of being overcome with an "ethic and prophetic cry".Levinas begins in the cry of responsibility for the other, of ethical revolt, i.e., in a prophetic manner.
The philosopher, who was held captive in a labor camp during the second world war, spoke of the prophetic cry.
In those apocalyptic conditions where everything became hostile to humanity, Levinas found human warmth in a dog. Yes, after Auschwitz, poetry could not be written, Adorno said, but after Auschwitz, philosophy could be done, a philosophy of eternal responsibility towards the other, the different, other than us.
He said that a being that arises in a way that is not related to anything other than itself is misery. To know another is to recognize and give in hunger. But since this encounter is also a kind of learning, he said that in someone else who is in misery, I would find what is higher than me.
As in the apocalypse, with the embarrassment of surviving after death, he developed a philosophy of eternal responsibility towards the dead and the living. Left behind by death, Levinas was almost overwhelmed with the guilt or responsibility of surviving on behalf of others.
Isn't it that no one survives a massacre, some die bodily, and some die under the weight of the horror they experienced before their death?He said that by respecting the living and the other, one should not suppress or stifle the cry of those who seek to change the world. It was a meaning that would testify to the other in screams, a meaning conveyed, such as a command.
The ethical philosopher Levinas gave himself to the other. He has succeeded in transcending his own nature by putting himself in a powerless position in the face of the other. According to Levinas, this brings him closer to God.18 The most important way to reach God is to surrender oneself to the other. Ki Ethics begins with the encounter with the face of the other. This encounter brings responsibility. Because the face of another leads us to God. With the example of Abel and Cain, it reminds us that God holds us responsible for the face of the other.
At that moment, when we meet the face, we hear its cry of despair. This scream awakens us from ourselves and allows us to come out of ourselves and realize it. This awakening is due to our responsibility to it because responsibility comes before freedom.
As in this work of Munch, Artists did not remain indifferent to what was happening outside their body but became the voice or cry of the silent at the expense of their inner peace and even their freedom.