In a new series, we explore different ways of looking at art so you can get more out of your visit to an exhibition. For each part in this series, an expert in their particular observational method will guide me through the Groninger Museum's permanent collection. In this first episode: how can you open your senses completely to experiencing art with intensity? Meditation teacher and performance artist Bernd Ihno Eilts teaches me to look at art mindfully.
Mindfulness involves paying conscious attention to the moment, without judgment. In recent years, this practice, which stems from Buddhism, has become very popular in the Netherlands. Scientific research and therapeutic applications are steadily increasing.
How do you actually prepare for this kind of mindful museum visit? I contact Bernd a few days in advance via WhatsApp. He answers me with a voice message:
‘Prior to meditation, the best thing you can do is stay at home and keep things quiet. Don't listen to music, don't watch too much news, don't talk to others too often. I think this is easy to do because we are in a very special situation that allows us these experiences. So you don't actually need to bring anything to the museum! It's more about how you are in the moment. Prepare yourself, remain silent, try not to do too much. See if that works.’
I decide to try it. Except for an early morning meeting, I try to do as little as possible. Finally, I have five minutes of peace and quiet left before I hop on my bike to the museum.
We are in the De Lucchi Pavilion of the Groninger Museum, where the permanent collection is on display. Bernd's eye falls immediately on a portrait of Izak van Delden, a musician. I ask Bernd what he sees. He talks about the soft pianist hands, the friendly gaze, and the fresh-looking peaches on the table next to Izak. He says that he could call him right away and be happy to stop by. The room is full of portraits. ‘But,’ Bernd says, ‘they all look much less inviting, much less present, much less connecting. This painting is an invitation to be present.’
LOOK CAREFULLY
We walk on to a painting by Kiefer. I ask how to look at this work. ‘See what the colours do, the energy of the canvas,’ he says. We are now at a very abstract painting. Bernd notes that the canvas needs no enclosure, that there is no boundary as with the other works in the room — neatly framed modernist landscapes. ‘I like it because this work is just the way it is. A little rough around the edges. I always used to stand very close to paintings. Sometimes I had the idea that, if it smelled nice, the painting was also nice; if there was no smell, I thought: never mind. I like this work so much because it is so earthy. Earth is not just the soil, but also life: we come from it, but we also go back to it.’
We have been walking around and looking at different works for a while now. I notice that Bernd is becoming more and more comfortable. I ask him the key question: how can you look carefully at a work for a long period of time? ‘It's important to take your time. That you set aside your time for what you want to do. Will you keep at it, or will you do something else in the meantime? It is not always necessary to make a plan, but it is nice to have several options. Then you don’t feel as much pressure. You can look at the environment around the work, but you always come back to the image.’
It is similar to vipassanā meditation, he says: a form of meditation where you focus on your breathing. ‘You breathe in, then out, and then there’s a free moment, where nothing happens. You stay there and try to make that place a little bigger. You actually follow some kind of movement with your attention. In that sense, anyone can do it. The question is: to what extent are you willing avoid distraction? To what extent are you willing not to grab your phone, to consciously not hear music, to let that go. It’s incredible. If you can train yourself for that, you can also train your attention to things. Then it takes on something wonderful, something special. You always have attention. Even if you are having a terrible time of things — you are sick, you are in pain, there is nothing you can do about it — you can always return to your own breathing, and your awareness that you are still there.’
TAKING THE TIME
I notice that as we spend more time in the museum, the conversation changes and Bernd expands a lot more: ‘I have the time now. I always need time to get into something. I enjoy things more when I have the time to be somewhere. Actually, you need a quiet space first, to cool off a bit from your surroundings. Because there’s so much here: it's a lot and it's so exhausting. You can barely take the time to really sit down.’
The gist of what I learned today is that if you want to walk around a museum mindfully, it's okay to casually look at some works first, that you don't have to ‘enter the zone’ right away.