Contemporary art, which could function as a space for dialogue and discussion, has increasingly become a commercial instrument serving a narrow, elitist circle. One often hears people say, “I do not understand contemporary art,” which in many cases actually means, “I do not have access to this circle,” or “I do not see how it helps me understand the world around me.”

Yet familiarity with the discourse of contemporary art could address several challenges of modern life. It can offer release from mental tension through conceptual art that demonstrates ways of thinking outside conventional frameworks. It can provide sensorial relaxation through abstract art—its colors, forms, patterns, and textures. A calm landscape in a living or working space can ground and soothe the viewer each time it is encountered. Art can also provoke intense emotional responses, particularly in works by artists who engage with social trauma, reassembling and compressing collective emotions into a distilled form that helps explain complex realities.

Most importantly, art serves a fundamental human need for mythology. Thousands of years after the era of Ancient Greece, we still rely deeply on myths. To navigate daily chaos—whether personal or absorbed through headlines—people seek meaning, explanations, and, above all, the strength to continue. Umberto Eco, in Foucault’s Pendulum, illustrates the human tendency to weave disparate facts into mythical narratives, often irrationally. At this stage, a myth is unconsciously created: an archaic structure translated into contemporary contexts. The immense success of the Marvel universe, with its dozens of superheroes, can be understood through this lens.

But what if ancient societies had already faced the very problems we struggle with today? What if our fears and desires were mapped long ago in myths across cultures—stories that once helped civilizations endure, and that might still help us make sense of the present?