In the culture of numbers, where value is measured in likes and shares on social media, I have 577 followers on Instagram after 642 posts. For many, this sounds like failure. But if we talk about real engagement – that deep exchange between art and viewer, between concept and understanding – then the conversation becomes completely different.
Social media rewards quickly consumable content, not conceptual depth. A post with a monumental bronze sculpture or a spectacle in the studio dancing with the brush in hand, dirty with colors, gathers thousands of instant reactions. A project like “Manuscript. The Dance of the Line” – a 27-year evolution from an invented alphabet, transformed into a contemporary palimpsest on canvas – generates rather silence on the feed. Not because one is better than the other, but because the algorithm privileges immediate visual impact, not long-term artistic research. The quick scroll leaves no room for understanding the stratifications of process or conceptual continuity.
I am about to be part of an art and architecture event, a partnership between lighting design firms, architecture offices and contemporary art centers where light gives voice to the work in a space where lighting design becomes part of the visual and emotional experience. This presents itself as real engagement: professionals from related fields who understand the dialogue between line and space, curators who position the work in a conceptual context, visitors who spend time with the work, not just scroll on social media applications. A few likes on Instagram for a post, but strategic partnership with professionals, visibility in the contemporary art circuit, potential for future collaborations.
In the digital age, the printed catalog remains the serious tool for the professional circuit. Curators, gallery owners, collectors prefer something tangible – a real object that costs money to produce, thus signaling concrete commitment to the work. A catalog includes critical essays, process documentation, artistic statement, exhibition photos – a complete document that reflects conceptual complexity, something impossible to transmit in a 3-second post. The ephemeral post disappears in the feed in a few hours. The printed catalog sits on a curator’s desk for months, maybe years.
Here my question appeared: where is the problem? In social media? No, the problem is the confusion between reach and value, between visibility and substance. The first path: you post constantly, you make consumable content, you adapt art to the algorithm, you accumulate followers for entertainment. It works for sponsorships and large audience. The second path: you work on deep conceptual projects, you collaborate with professionals, you participate in exhibitions organized by curators, you publish catalogs. Small but qualitative audience that buys works at correct prices and understands the process. You cannot have both simultaneously without major compromises. You must consciously choose what you build.
This does not necessarily mean complete abandonment of social media, but rather redefining its role in artistic practice. For me, Instagram functions as a digital studio of visual references – a library of movement and gestures that conceptually feeds my projects. Social media thus becomes a research tool, not a platform for validation through metrics.
Yes, you can build organically both authenticity and reach, but it takes years, maybe decades. Most of us artists do not have the patience or the luxury of necessary time. I chose to invest in the professional circuit: strategic exhibitions, partnerships with architects and designers, printed catalogs, relationships with curators. Social media remains only a minimal showcase, without pressure after algorithms.
577 followers, it is true, in the social media era sounds quite few. But the strategic partnership with architects for a major event, a professional printed catalog, and a documented conceptual evolution builds something that lasts beyond the life cycle of an Instagram post.
