All religions are about dependence, says Neil MacGregor

“Chocolate is very good for feeling better. It’s one of the universal religious truths,” jokes art historian and author, Neil MacGregor, who has previously enjoyed directorship over prestigious art institutions like the National Gallery in London, the British Museum, and has also birthed intriguing television and radio series on art, literature and history. At Mumbai’s recently concluded international literary festival, Neil spoke about his latest magnum opus, Living with the Gods, a book that analyses the nature and importance of belief and faith in human lives by looking at religious objects, sites and activities through time, across the globe.

Since his book explores the relevance of faith and belief in society, we ask the author if we will ever live to see an a-religious society, given how technology is rapidly filling a void that was once acutely experienced. “Basically, all religions are about dependence; whether it’s dependence on each other, or forces we don’t understand, and how you address the world knowing that you are dependent on forces outside your control. The growth of the technologised consumer is an assumption that you can actually manage the world as an individual. Anybody who had thought that a hundred years ago, would have been regarded as being supremely rich, or unhinged,” chuckles the author, adding that, since we haven’t in the history of humankind, had a society that functions without religion, there is no way of knowing if such a model will work.

Living with the Gods

Neil’s interest in tracing the significance behind objects and the secrets locked in history emerged when as a child, he was exposed to the imaginative world of stories. “Be it Biblical stories or novels, there was the realisation that this imagined world was the world in which you could understand the real world;  It was not to escape but to understand it better,” shares Neil.

The author, who is one of the founders of the Humboldt Forum in Berlin, has worked closely with Sabyasachi Mukherjee, Director General and Secretary, Board of Trustees of the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya. He also shared his views on a topic that continues to be heavily debated in the art world – the restoration of collections to their native lands. While those like French President, Emmanuel Macron, support the returning of artifacts temporarily or permanently, Neil believes that rather than arguing about the geographical location of an artifact or collection, the need of the hour is to see how far and often it can travel, so that a ‘public museum becomes the private collection of every citizen’.  “When it comes to physical objects, I think the key thing for great objects is that they should be seen by as many people as possible, in as many places as possible. So the question is not whether ‘this object will always be in place A or place B?’ but the real question is ‘how is this object going to be in places C, D, E, F, G and over what kind of timescale’. For me, the ideal museum is one that is of equal possession to all in the city, which is also a lending library for all in the world,” opines Neil.

And since these bedrocks of history and culture play a crucial role in our lives, Neil, who has consistently advocated free entry to museums, avers that museums must, “Allow access to as many people as possible. Secondly, the museum needs to offer ways of engaging with the artworks or objects, because the relationship between the viewer and the object isn’t a passive one. You have to enter the world of the object, and explore the big questions surrounding love, suffering or death.” For these reasons, the author believes that it is crucial for collections to be accompanied by an adequate amount of information, including the views of experts.

On the topic of disseminating information, the conversation segues into one about the web space and the digitisation of art collections. Championing the merits of virtual tours offered by museums, Neil says, “The digital world is very important, it is a good second-best; and in some ways, depending on the object, it’s better. If you take the drawings of Rembrandt, which are very fragile, you can’t exhibit them in light for very long. But, you can get very high-quality resolution online, which aids detailed studying.” The author also points out how the virtual space expands the reach of historical objects, buttressing the concept of ‘world heritage sites’. “World Heritage is a really important idea; we’re saying that this object or building is so important that everybody in the world has a stake in this, and everybody in the world would be poorer if it were to be destroyed or defiled. The digitising of collections allows you to go quite a long way towards that by saying - this belongs to everybody. Another huge thing is that you can convey information in so many more languages on the Internet. So if we believe in the idea of World Heritage, then the web really needs to be at the heart of that,” asserts Neil.

While many vintage wonders like Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa and Bernini’s David have calcified their status as works of art, thanks to the accolades of art critics and the reverential gaze of spectators, museums and galleries have, time and again, witnessed rebellious collections or exhibitions that are designed to be provocative. Street artist Banksy voluntarily ripped his painting to shreds, while performance artist Marina Abramovic is reportedly set to electrify herself with a million volts for her upcoming performance at UK’s Royal Academy of Arts. Such controversial creative expressions have led to a question many have struggled to answer: what is art? Though Neil modestly suggests that his understanding is only one of many, he goes as far as saying that, “Art is when a person is able to transform reality in a way that carries meanings to different viewers, and over a significant period of time, it continues to hold meanings; only then does it become great art. Because often, it speaks only for a little time and like a whispered voice, it fades away. Which is why you can never know, at the time, if something is great art.”