Geoff Dyer, How We Experience Art

In his most recent novel, Jeff in Venice, Death in Varanasi, Geoff Dyer creates the character Jeff Atman. Much like Dyer, he’s a writer charged with attending and covering the 2003 Venice Biennale. Jeff ignores various masterpieces, stumbles upon one particularly moving piece only by accident, takes in a major light installation while hung over, and participates in a toast to the Bellini—the cocktail—as the best art at the festival. Though Dyer’s views on art and experiencing art don’t exactly match Jeff’s, he uses his character to examine art and place. Geoff Dyer visited Zócalo to discuss his experience of a particular piece of art.