So not an artist

We visited the Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art today. I don't know how many times I heard, "Why is this art? I'm so not an artist? I don't like contemporary art. Couldn't kindergarteners have done the same thing?"

I actually kind of enjoyed it. There were exhibitions on women's rights, oppression, loss due to war, Palestian issues. I found myself doing a lot of introspection.

I could have so used a tour - but one in English didn't start until much later.

One of the interesting things was a display of three bottles of coke. One empty, one half full, one full. At first, you thought there was something about the bottle being half-full (and that view of optimism). What they were really showing you is that people took the bottles and inscribed a message on them ("Yankees go home", for example) and then returned the bottle to the manufacturer. You couldn't see the message until it was filled again.

Another interesting exhibit was a film of a fellow who had been commissioned to draw a mural - and THEN paint over it. It was to demonstrate revisionism. Weird.

Another weird thing was a room where you had to take off your shoes. Inside was a floor of sand (covered with plastic), balls on the floor, and images being displayed on the wall. It connoted drug use. The kids who were at the museum loved kicking the balls around. At that exhibit, we met a couple from New Jersey who were as disgusted with the whole museum as Steve was. The fellow had such an accent, I couldn't tell it was English for a while. So funny!