I was watching a very artsy movie the other evening called “The Square” about an Avant-garde Swedish museum that is opening a controversial art display called The Square, a 4×4 square in the cement in front of the museum, outlined by a rope light.

The movie went on to relationships and other bizarre interactions so I stopped watching, but the controversy at the beginning really made me think.

“It’s meant to represent a communal ‘safe space,’ ” the artist explained. “The Square is a sanctuary of trust and caring. Within it, we all share equal rights and obligations.”

I never knew a 4×4 square could be so deep.

Am I missing something here?

An artist can make anything they create mean anything they want. A few sentences of explanation and you may understand it’s a political statement or a state of mind or world of chaos. It’s all up to the artist.

The discussion group in the movie states that they “need to harness social media attention with something other than the uncontroversial and bland artist’s statement.”

The square is nothing more than a 4 x 4 cement square. Another exhibit in the museum was a room with 15(?) piles of something arranged in 5 pile lines.

Why is this considered art?

Most people glance at displays like this and don’t give it a second thought. We don’t understand and don’t feel like understanding.

One of the quotes from the movie is, “If you place an object in a museum does that make this object a piece of art?”

This is still my question about modern art.

If a handful of people get the meaning you assign to your piece, is it still museum-worthy? Will it be remembered and cherished as a reflection of the world at the time?

Does every piece of art have to make sense?

I wonder about it all.