Artistic creation and individuation
The arts surround us, accompany us in our daily lives: painting, writing, cinema, theatre, poetry, music, singing, photography, dance… Art opens us to ourselves, connects us to others, to our Other!
In the Jungian approach, creating is not just about making something “beautiful”. It is a process. It transforms.
A work of art can almost be seen as a dream: it carries images, symbols, something of our psychic life that seeks to express itself differently. And art, in all its forms, is one of the privileged languages of our psyche .
To create is to open a space where something can happen , be expressed differently, be transformed. Sometimes creation carries the numinous : an experience charged with a particular intensity, both intimate and universal. In these moments, the artist becomes, in a way, a medium: their work becomes the vehicle for archetypal images and symbols that resonate far beyond them.
Observing how the same creation can resonate uniquely with each person, while revealing commonalities, demonstrates the power of art.
Creating allows one to 'dialogue' with one's unconscious, and can sometimes contact the numinous. The artist then becomes a 'medium'; their work carries archetypal images and symbols that are often intuitively recognized by the public because they reside in the Collective Unconscious.
Art, as a symbolic expression, also possesses a healing function. It can stage inner conflicts, making them visible and therefore amenable to integration. It soothes the soul by giving form to what previously lacked words or images, what remained unrevealed.
Today, we are bombarded with images produced with the help of technology. What are their impacts on our psychological well-being? How can we find meaning in them for ourselves and for humanity?
The Rencontres de Provence, for their third edition, explore the power of art as a process of individual and collective transformation. We examine the conscious or unconscious links between Jungian concepts and the artistic world of today.
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