written by art historian & curator Mihaela Manolche
Humanity celebrates art as a profound medium, delving into beauty, emotion, and intellect. Yet, beneath its polished surface, art has a surprising kinship with games. Art and games hinge on intricate systems of rules, boundaries, and objectives to convey meaning and invite engagement. In games, mechanics — defined rules and structures — guide players toward goals within a controlled environment. Similarly, art operates within frameworks of tradition, societal expectation, and personal intent, setting its own rules that shape how it’s created, viewed, and interpreted.But while games encourage players to follow these mechanics to reach a ”win”, art often moves in the opposite direction. Artists frequently break the rules, using their frameworks not as restrictions but as challenges, subverting norms to provoke fresh insights and invite viewers into spaces of imaginative exploration. Both art and games ask participants to suspend assumptions, test boundaries, and engage in a deeper play with meaning. So, what does it mean to see art as a game? When does art push the boundaries to remain profound rather than trivial? How can these “mechanics of play” create a participatory relationship between the artist and the audience? By exploring the rules and the art of breaking them, we uncover art’s unique power to transform…
