Now that the museums are physically closed as a security measure during the coronavirus crisis, new ways of making cultural visits through their websites have been developed. But also, since art is inspired by life, other web platforms have spawned to express how artists are living this pandemic. 

This is how the first virtual museum about the coronavirus was born. Its name is Covid Art Museum, an ingenious idea of Emma Calvo, Irene Llorca and José Guerrero, publicists from Barcelona, Spain, to commission the best works that artists are sharing on Instagram.

"Our selection criteria is to choose works that are made in the quarantine period, that transmit and reflect what we are all living and feeling," the creators explained to Yorokobu, "that's why we don't limit ourselves to any one technique. We collect all kinds of art, be it illustrations, photographs, paintings, drawings, animations, video, etc."

Because the three publicists regularly follow a large number of artists and galleries, their task of commissioning art online has been much easier, although they also receive proposals from creatives from all over the world through Instagram.

"We find messages of all kinds: many talk about love and union; others seek to raise awareness; some have a more comical approach and others are simply curious observations of the new scenario in which we find ourselves," they said. 

"We think the pandemic will end eventually, but art never dies."

But some people are also inspired by the panic and chaos happening in their work. 

The elements that are most repeated in "Covid Art" are, as you can imagine, the masks, the toilet paper and yes, the virus itself. 

"We think the pandemic will end eventually, but art never dies. For the time being, this will be our archive on Arte Covid, and in the future, all those interested will be able to find out how the artists expressed themselves during this period," concluded the founders.

Are we witnessing the emergence of a bacteriological movement? Could it be that quarantines, in addition to time, trigger our creativity?