There was a time when anything viral had to be handled with medication, rest, and a good-faith effort not to infect others. Then came the 21st century, and we decided to eliminate its derogatory meaning. It’s trendy to be viral, even if that means scandalous, and people pay a lot of money to achieve this. Novelty, however, is starting to feel like tedium — especially in the art world, where “contemporary” too often trumps the word that follows it.
The great artistic conquest of postmodernism is transgression; the more viral, the more scandalous, the more successful. And the ploy descends into self-parody. Recently, progressive-minded functionaries decided to put on an art exhibition in the European Parliament — and, yes, you guessed it, it is not Velázquez, not Bernini, not even Warhol. It is a collection of photographs in which Jesus appears surrounded by homosexual and transgender apostles, some dressed as sadomasochists. It scores points among a certain crowd for sticking it to devout Christians, as if the Romans hadn’t already invented the practice.
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