Christian art exhibition reclaims
‘rejected medium’

SAN JOSÉ, Costa Rica — The Bible Society of Costa Rica recently held an exhibition of painting and sculpture with a Christian theme, thereby restating the claim of art as a medium for communicating the Bible’s message.

Spiritual reflection

It was held from May 11 until June 8th at the Supreme Court of Elections building in the capital, where presidential and vice-presidential elections and elections to the national assembly are declared and administered. Entitled First National Biennale of Visual Arts – 2000 Years of Christianity, it aimed not only to challenge artists to study and interpret the Bible but also, in the words of Dr Edesio Sanchez, the UBS Translation Consultant who contributed to the exhibition catalogue, to invite people to spiritual reflection “through a medium that has been largely rejected by evangelical tradition.”

Four local artists were invited to judge it but they were not, on the whole, regular readers of the Bible. Two had never actually held a Bible in their hands before, so to make their task easier, Dr Sanchez provided an interpretation of the biblical message of each piece of work in the exhibition catalogue.

4,000 visitors daily

More than 500 people, most of them from Costa Rica’s arts world, attended the opening ceremony, and all the contributing artists were given a Bible as a token of the Bible Society’s appreciation.

As an exhibition venue the Supreme Court of Elections turned out to be a good choice: it has an average of 4,000 visitors daily.

Luis Chacón, curator of the Supreme Court of Elections and a well-known artist himself, said, “Works of art today project messages of sadness and hopelessness... But the work displayed in this biennial shows hope [and] people identify with it. We have really been able to rescue a great part of that which had been lost.”

This year’s exhibition was part of the UBS Opportunity 21 program Celebration of Christianity – for the Millennium. The Bible Society was thrilled by the response to the exhibition and is already planning the next one – due to be held in 2003 – which it hopes to fund through corporate sponsorship. (WR 363/10 - 10.01)