"Art cannot be taught, but it can be learned. The master gives clues, points out paths, invokes actions. The disciple ends up learning when he is ready to learn what he is taught". So said Alfredo Aracil, National Music Award 2015 and composer and screenwriter of Siempre/Todavía. Opera without voiceswhich will premiere at the Museo Universidad de Navarra on Thursday, October 15. The piece was presented on Tuesday, October 13 in the Museum's auditorium through the colloquium Somos Memoria. Alfredo Aracil was accompanied by Alberto Corazón, winner of the 1989 National Design Award and author of the writings and images that make up the play. The show combines the images and text by Alberto Corazón with music by Alfredo Aracil, performed live by pianist Juan Carlos Garvayo. This creation arose from Corazón's notes in his travel notebooks during his stay in Damascus (Syria) in 2002. 

Art -in all its disciplines-, beauty... is an important part of basic education that should be inculcated from the first levels of education. Can one be educated in art? Can one be taught to perceive beauty?

ALBERTO CORAZÓN: Naturally. In the appreciation of beauty there are two points, one of knowledge and the other that has to do with that mysterious gift that what is beautiful has. The knowledge side has to be worked on and the other has to be exercised. Nothing is spontaneous, everything is learned. In the same way that in music we gradually become more and more fond of it and we are able to listen to more complex pieces, exactly the same happens with everything. One of the things that surprises me about design students, in all its modalities, is the little attention they pay to museums and exhibitions. It seems inconceivable to me.

ALFREDO ARACIL: Art cannot be taught, but it can be learned. The master gives clues, hints. He is not teaching anything concrete, but rather opening windows, pointing out paths, making suggestions. But the appreciation of art, of the emotion of art, of beauty or, above all, of artistic creation, cannot be taught in a deliberate way. However, one can do everything possible so that the disciple learns. By pointing out paths, invoking certain emotions, expressing one's own experiences, the disciple ends up learning. What is very curious is that one does not always learn at that moment. One learns, but only when he is ready to learn what he is taught.

Is it necessary to understand a work of art to enjoy it?

A.C.- No, it is not necessary to understand it. A work of art has no explanation. What it does have are references, and that is why knowledge is very important. I appreciate a painting by Caravaggio much better if I know what it responds to, under what conditions it was painted, what were the problems they had at that time... That is why knowledge is very important. There is no spontaneous appreciation of beauty, it must also be exercised.

A.A.- It is not necessary. The more you understand about the work, the more you can enjoy or suffer with it. The more you know, the more you can perceive. But it is not necessary. To attend a concert of classical music or contemporary music like ours, it is not necessary to understand anything to enjoy, just as it is not necessary to be a botanist to enjoy a walk in a garden. We can enjoy a concert without even knowing the name of the composer of the piece.

For most university students, their first contact with art is through manuals, essays, writings, very academic, when, as many artists argue, art has to do with something experiential. How can this contrast be explained?

A.C.- The cause is laziness. In the graphic arts they already achieve very good reproductions, so we are getting used to connect with a work of art through reproductions: through catalogs or art books. But that never replaces the real emotion of connecting with the work. Many people think they know Tàpies' work very well, for example, and have seen very few real Tàpies. But they have seen many books, magazines, reproductions. That is laziness, and you have to fight it. If there is no effort, it is not easy to have anything.

A.A.- What should be done is to combine the contemplation of works of art in museums, through slides, videos; when it comes to performing arts, with data. First we must show and then talk about what we are showing because otherwise everything is pure theory. It is important that the teaching of art goes hand in hand with the encounter with the work of art.

How then should art be approached by a university student?

A.C.- That vision has always seemed very populist to me. It is the university students who have to approach art, not art that has to approach students.

A.A.- Making university students more and more cultured and more sensitive. Not by bringing art to them, knocking at the door and asking for forgiveness for bothering them, but on the contrary. Making them more cultured, more sensitive, better and more fully educated, and then they will be the ones who will go out to meet art and knock on the museum door to enter.

How do you think art and other disciplines such as aesthetics or creativity should be taught at university?

A.C.- This is a very serious problem that has to do with the academic mode that still prevails in universities. Transversality, horizontality, is becoming more and more important, and this show proves it. In this way, connections between faculties should be the norm. When I was asked at the Autonomous University of Madrid to create a Design Studies Program, I said that there should not be a Design classroom or building, but that designers should be one day in Law, another in Economics, another in Sociology and another in Fine Arts. But, academically, this is impossible. This is a problem that should be discussed. The transversal is becoming more and more necessary, essential.

A.A.- Combining information and contemplation. Art should be part of the general culture of any person. In the same way that a student of Humanities knows some basic concepts of mathematics, a student of Physical Sciences, for example, should have a basic knowledge of philosophy, general culture and, of course, art history. 

The University bet on the construction of this museum and is promoting activities for university students to get closer to art. Do you think that the construction of university museums is really a way to bring art closer to university students or to bring them closer to art?

A.C.- You have to come and experience the work live, whether it is a painting, a sculpture or a piece of music. We depend more and more on the media. We depend on the disc, the DVD, the graphic reproduction, the book, the catalog, and that is only something that helps you, but it never replaces the connection with the real work.

A.A.- A museum like this one and activities like the ones in the theater are really an invaluable asset to complete the education of anyone, not only students of art history or related sciences, but of any person.