Loosely Talking: TEFAF

The only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about – Oscar Wilde. 

Hello! Welcome to our third issue of Loosely Talking, where we reflect on our lives between the cobblestones. 

Yesterday, TEFAF closed its doors. For those who don't know, The European Fine Art Fair is one of the most prestigious art fairs in the world and it happens right here in our beloved Maastricht. Conveniently, or rather inconveniently, it takes place in the MECC: the very same venue where we sit our exams. The building where we sweat over essay questions and frantically scribble citations is, for one week a year, home to Picassos, ancient Egyptian artifacts, and fancy people who seem to have stepped out of a Wes Anderson film.

Both of us being art enthusiasts, we of course made our annual pilgrimage. Standing in those halls which usually smell of anxiety and vending machine coffee, now transformed into something resembling the Louvre. We couldn't help but feel a little disoriented. The same space, entirely reimagined, got us thinking: when did we stop leaving room for creativity?

University has a funny way of tunneling your thoughts. Everything becomes structured. Arguments must be substantiated, ideas must be cited. To put it differently, our creativity must be justified. The art fair reminded us that not everything needs a thesis statement. Some things exist simply to be felt, looked at, or argued about over a glass of wine you definitely can't afford.

As UCM students, we are lucky to be in a program that, in theory, encourages interdisciplinary thinking and creative exploration. In practice, though, between the deadlines, the Linked-ziety (see last week's column), and the general fog of third year, we forget to feed that part of ourselves. TEFAF is a yearly nudge: creativity isn't a luxury or a break from the serious stuff. TEFAF is a yearly reminder that creativity isn’t a luxury or a break from the serious stuff, it is an important part of our everyday lives.

There is something quite magical about a city that holds your Microeconomics resit and a Flemish painting from 1640 in the same building. Maastricht does this often, placing the mundane and the magnificent right next to each other and allowing you to interact with both. Maybe that's why we like it so much here.

So, if you didn't make it to TEFAF this year, add it to the list for next time. In the meantime, try to leave a little room in your week for something that doesn't need to be graded. Doodle in the margins. Take a long route home. Let yourself be a little less productive and a little more curious.

Until next week, 

Celia and Ella