The Square

“The Square is a sanctuary of trust and caring. Within its bounds we all share equal rights and obligations”.

That is the text that accompanies the art installation The Square, an illuminated 4x4m square on the ground—the text that has to exist to explain the artist’s intention and give meaning to the artwork, as with lots of postmodern art. 
Ruben Östlund’s film The Square begins as a satirical film about the contemporary art world. He mocks postmodern art and the art world, from artists to curators, from PR creatives to journalists, even the audience and bourgeois politesse, whilst raising questions about art, its meaning and values, art vs marketing, attention span, provocation and publicity, and freedom of expression. It is entertaining, especially when Christian, a curator at X-Royal Museum, is utterly serious in his self-important and incoherent speeches about art. 
However, the chief target of satire in the film is the main character, Christian—he talks well but doesn’t seem to believe in what he’s saying, rehearses “spontaneous” lapses into informality, preaches trust and caring but dismisses his non-white employees, seeks revenge on his robbers, runs away from trouble, and ignores the small Arab boy who gets punished because of Christian’s selfish thoughtlessness. Christian is not a 2-dimensional character—he helps a beggar, and has a bad conscience after yelling at his daughter or dismissing the Arab boy. His faults come from being in his job as an art curator, and his position of power and privilege, for too long. He is used to wealth and power. He is used to putting on an act, saying big words he doesn’t mean, and preaching values he doesn’t believe in. 
Then troubles occur, and his world crumbles. 
The film is episodic, and lacks some kind of resolution, but it is fun and thought-provoking. Some sequences are wonderful, especially the unforgettable sequence of Terry Notary doing an art performance as a wild animal, at a fancy party. People laugh in amusement, at 1st—how good he is, like an ape. He chases a man around. Christian stands up to applaud the performance. But it isn’t over. The man responds by howling, like a wild beast, and now everyone is terrified—the performance no longer looks like a performance, he jumps on a table and chooses a prey, whilst everyone freezes. 



In that scene, The Square makes the audience uncomfortable and scared, and makes us wonder how we would react if we were there. 
A good film.