Sometimes I wonder if I could die in the name of art.
The conclusion is that I do not want to die in the name of art. I believe that none of the ideologies is worth human life. History knows many cases of when people were dying for ideology, e.g., for their homeland. In Poland, we have many heroic and traumatic examples of devoting one’s life to Poland. Still, I have many doubts if it is worth doing it. Undoubtedly, there are many arguments that people should sacrifice their lives for some ideologies, like defending the homeland. I think that human life is the most crucial thing, not dogma. Of course, I can be wrong, but that is my relatively intuitive conclusion. But what about art? Should artists die for their artworks? I do not think so.
Nevertheless, today I will provide one curiosity when the artist died, probably accidentally (but we never know the truth) for his artwork.
Bas Jan Ader, the Dutch conceptual artist, on the 9th of July, 1975, set off alone from Cape Cod, Massachusetts (USA), in a tiny sailboat, to cross the Atlantic Ocean from New England to England. It was supposed to be a performance named “In Search of the Miraculous.” It appeared that it was his last performance. In it, there was not any miracle and happy ending. His vessel, called “Ocean Wave,” was not intended for transoceanic voyages. Indeed, it was the smallest craft in which an attempt to cross the Atlantic was made. The journey was supposed to last two and a half months. After three weeks since the beginning of the maritime trip, radio contact with the artist ceased. Ten months later, “Ocean Wave” was spotted 240 kilometers (150 miles) from the coast of Ireland. The craft was empty. Ader is assumed to have drowned.
Nevertheless, to this day, some people wonder if the performance was supposed to be a kind of suicide-performance art. Did Bas Jan Ader die in the name of art, or Dutch artist’s death was an accident? We will never know it.
PS
I wrote this text on the 26th of April, 2021.
