Revolution, please, but only on the walls.

Art has always had a rebellious streak and challenges conventions, questions authority, and dares to imagine a world that does not yet exist. If we had to define art, perhaps it is the freedom to see beyond what is, to question what seems inevitable and to give form to what has not yet been imagined. No manifesto required, although artists have never been particularly afraid of one. Yet, we adore revolution most when it comes beautifully framed.

© Cosima von Bonin "Let Them Eat Cake" by Marcus J Leith

We admire provocation from a safe distance, celebrate the avant-garde over a glass of champagne and applaud radical ideas, provided they do not rearrange the furniture of our own lives.

Paris offered a rather uncomfortable reminder of this contradiction during Art Basel Paris week. As protests and social tensions spilled into the streets, the art world found itself caught between the promise of cultural freedom and the realities beyond the gallery walls. The fair closed early amid security concerns, while museums and other cultural venues also shut their doors. Suddenly, the revolution was no longer just a compelling subject to contemplate but was happening outside.

Perhaps the question is not whether art should be politically provocative or uncomfortable, but whether we are willing to face what it reflects back at us. Art does not necessarily offer answers, let alone comfortable ones. It exposes contradictions, makes invisible tensions tangible, and allows us to look at the familiar from an unfamiliar angle. Sometimes, the most unsettling work is not the one that challenges our beliefs, but the one that reveals how little we are prepared to question them.

This is where art becomes more than an object of admiration. As we have explored in our thoughts, the value of art lies not only in what it represents, but in how it changes the way we see. It invites us to suspend judgement, tolerate ambiguity, and consider possibilities beyond the established order. For businesses and society alike, that capacity matters. When the status quo stops serving us, repeating yesterday's solutions with tomorrow's technology is hardly a revolution.

So let us keep celebrating art's freedom, its audacity and its occasional bad manners. Perhaps we should also allow a little of that unruly spirit to escape the frame. After all, if we admire art for daring to question the world, shouldn't we have the courage to question our own?

Yours truly,

Margot

MDA sidenote: Cosima von Bonin (b. 1962 in Kenya) is a German artist who transforms textiles, appliqués, and fabric into works that play with Pop Art, minimalist structures, and cartoon-inspired imagery. Her titles often borrow familiar historical and pop-cultural phrases, turning them into ironic commentary on consumerism, social status, and the art world itself. In "Let Them Eat Cake" territory, the Marie Antoinette-attributed quip becomes more than a reference: it exposes the delicious absurdity of privilege, indifference, and the distance between those who have plenty and those who do not. Last exhibited at Art Basel Paris 2026 at Galerie Neu.