The Leiden university professor Kitty Zijlmans suggested that one should open up for a work of art, try to meet, try to dialogue…..
When the philosopher Levinas discusses the ‘Other’, this ‘Other’ may be a work of art. Zijlmans referred to the phenomenon ‘living presence response’…. “in which viewers react to works of art as if they are living beings or even persons that act upon the viewer, enter into a personal relationship with them, and elicit love, hate, desire or fear….” or compassion. In this manner, art is able to humanise the world.