Art as refuge and archive: a way to transform pain and joy into shared memory.
By Claudia Benitez
HoyLunes – Human life seems to be marked by a constant oscillation. At times we find ourselves trapped in suffering, in the frustration born from the sting of abandonment, of pain, of unfulfilled desire; at other times we are confronted with boredom, falling into the trace left by fulfilled desire, that emptiness that appears once it has been satisfied.
Some have described this dynamic as the essence of our condition, perhaps forgetting that between both shores joy also burns: an unexpected spark that reminds us that not everything is reduced to pain or emptiness.
It is precisely in that intermediate space where art arises. Not as a fleeting pastime, but as a bridge that allows us to cross the waves without shipwreck, to navigate these oscillations without becoming trapped in them. Art presents itself as a respite from suffering or as an antidote to tedium, to the emptiness of boredom; it can also emerge as the highest expression of joy that springs from love and fulfilled desire. When we contemplate a painting, listen to a melody, or write a poem, our attention shifts: we cease to focus only on lack, on what is missing or empty, and we open ourselves to an aesthetic experience that elevates us—if only momentarily—beyond our human condition.
Thus, art reveals itself as a vital gesture. It does not limit itself to entertaining or distracting us: it invites us to inhabit the threshold between pain and joy, between tedium and hope, and there to transform everything into beauty, into meaning, into the possibility of encounter. Each creation reminds us that we are capable of translating the fleeting nature of our emotions into something that transcends and endures.
Art not only saves us from the present moment, nor does it exhaust itself in it. One of its most powerful dimensions is its ability to build memory. Each work preserves a trace—of pain endured, of love lived, of fear overcome, of hope that once sustained us. By becoming a symbol, what was lived is preserved and reinvented. Art returns our experiences to us, our history under a different light, inviting us to reinterpret them and to share them with others.
Thus understood, art is both refuge and archive. Refuge, because it protects us from the ebb and flow of our emotions, allowing us to momentarily escape the oscillation between suffering and boredom. Archive, because it preserves the traces of who we are and projects them toward the future. In this dual function, art accompanies us in our perpetual movement, giving us the possibility to remember, to resignify, and above all, to continue creating.
May your return to the everyday also be a return to wonder: may routine not be mere repetition, but a seed of growth, of learning, and of moments worth remembering.
#hoylunes, #claudia_benitez,
