A New Dawn

In the past hundred years, human beings have only once experienced a Pandemic on such a large scale before with the Spanish Flu. It is here, affects all of us worldwide and cannot be put on the pile of fake and yesterdays news in a country somewhere far away from home.

The world is infected. Each and every one of us has to live with the consequences and measures that have been dropped in front of our feet; whether we are confined to our homes or are working in so-called vital jobs, we cannot escape the fact that a pandemic on such a scale will inevitably change the way we see and experience the world we have so far shaped and lived in.

A few months down the line and the 'new normal' is still not 'normal' and we should by now realise that COVID-19 is here to stay regardless of a vaccine. The danger now is not whether we will forget this pandemic and pat each other on the shoulder congratulating each other on how brilliantly we have managed this crisis, but a slow rise of controlled chaos and anger among the general public. What do we still believe in as politicians are not to be trusted with their restrictions, whom do we have to follow, when even the leaders are blind and why do we lack compassion and a feeling of care for others as soon as 'normality' is announced?

COVID-19 is here to stay. The new normal is the old normal but with a different shade of grey. Have we not learnt from past crises? Are we really that easily satisfied? And why are we arguing whether a face mask should or should not be worn without asking the people at the frontline of the pandemic: the nurses and nursing staff in hospitals and care homes who have - among others - experience COVID-19 related deaths?

We have to fight for equality, for shared responsibility, resilient futures and sustainability:

Share, Dare, Cure and Care!

While we need to keep investing in science and medical appliances and applications, we cannot forget the third corner, which is the Arts in the triangle which are the HUMANities; amalgamating specialists from all scientific fields in a post-disciplinary area. It is a contribution to our quality of life, through culture, through music. It is an asset to the development of every human being starting as early as birth and accompanying us throughout life. It is the arts that make us human and which do not know boundaries or hierarchies and thus allow to translate these values to our interactions in society. Understanding the arts therefore, transfers to our behaviours, cognition and emotions as we share these with others.

We cannot recreate these experiences solely in the digital realm, something we have grown so accustomed to. Digitalization and technology should not be fetishized but seen as an addition to the lives we live, the connections we make, the moments we share; we do not store memories, faces or interactions, we story them with and through the arts.

We are experiencing something which has been hidden to most of us for a very long time; being human is more than reshaping the world around us until it suits our western economic political ways. Being human is utilizing the cultural tools and artistic crafts that we have evolved with and mould them into the comprehension of our mental well-being and humanity at large.

Let us as artists, scientists, lecturers, medical professionals, students, tailors, tinkers and sailors start a new chapter in the story of shared responsibility and resilient futures: something we have to do together and something we have to do now!