The universe is built on a plan

The universe is built on a plan...

‌the profound symmetry of which is somehin the inner structure of our intellect.� Paul Valery

The Inner Light Without going out of my door I can know all things of earth Without looking out of my window I could know the ways of heaven The farther one travels The less one knows The less one really knows Without going out of my door You can know all things of earth Without looking out of my window You could know the ways of heaven The farther one travels The less one knows The less one really knows Arrive without travelling See all without looking Do all without doing This song was written by George Harrison that was first released by The Beatles in 1968.

The lyrics are a rendering of Chapter 47 in the Laozi‘s „Tao Te Ching“, the foundational book of Taoism.

Redefining foundations

-A brief introduction for THE UNIVERSE IS BUILT ON A PLAN... By Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung (PhD) What is for certain in a universe as complex as ours, is the constant transgression of concepts and ideologies, realities and theses. Just as we grow older and feel the desperate need to adapt to new circumstances and ages, and just as we are obliged to adapt our natures and cultures to changes, so too does the universe and our understanding of the foundation on which it is built, as well as the framework in which it is positioned.

The understanding of the plan on which the universe is or could be built has been a major occupation for artists, social and natural scientists for time immemorial. Amongst the many intellectuals who dared to approach the complexities and amorphousness of the universe was Paul Valery: THE UNIVERSE IS BUILT ON A PLAN... the profound symmetry of which is somehow present in the inner structure of our intellect.” Just as Paul Valery puts the focus on the „inner structure of our intellect“, so too does the exhibition at Savvy Contemporary, which owes its title to Valery‘s statement.

The curator for this exhibition Nicole Loeser invited five artists to delve into and investigate the inner structures of their intellects. The methodologies used to approach this theme varied from spirituality, inspiration and identity, sociology and geo-politics. Despite differences in the formal expression the points of departure for the artists from Germany, Iran, Serbia-Croatia, China-USA made clear the inspirational influences on their artistic creation is framed by encounters and experiences with other cultures.

While this exhibition gives us hints as to the different possibilities on which the universe might be built on, it is for each and every one of us to find out for ourselves what our universe is and if it is built on concrete or sandy ground.

As much as humankind can try to understand the myth of the universe, but so long as humankind exists in the „natural“, never shall he/she fully decoded the „supernaturality“ of the universe. Some have come close though...

As the French sociologist and critic Roland Barthes rightly stated (The Brain of Einstein, p.36 of Mythologies): „There is a single secret to the world, and this secret is held in one word; the universe is a safe of which humanity seeks the combination: Einstein almost found it, this is the myth of Einstein. In it, we find all the Gnostic themes: the unity of nature, the ideal possibility of a fundamental reduction of the world, the unfastening power of the word, the age-old struggle between a secret and an utterance, the idea that total knowledge can only be discovered all at once, like a lock which suddenly opens after a thousand unsuccessful attempts. The historic equation E = mc2, by its unexpected simplicity, almost embodies the pure idea of the key, bare, linear, made of one metal, opening with a wholly magical ease a door which had resisted the desperate efforts of centuries.“

While Savvy Contemporary does not try to place the theories of its exhibitions at the same level with that of Einstein, we still do firmly think that with the exhibition THE UNIVERSE IS BUILT ON A PLAN... we do contribute in a certain way in smithing and smoothening of this key to the door of the universe.

Curator‘s Statement

By Nicole F. Loeser

For SAVVY Contemporary´s first exhibition in 2012, I invited artists to consider notions of spirituality and inspiration with regard to studio practice today. The choice of artists was based on Savvy Contemporary´s aim to examine the concepts of Western and non-Western art through an exploration of their respective borders, and to investigate notions of ‘otherness’.

Everyday, I sense in others more of a search for a spiritually connected and inclusive world view, some foundation that prescribes meaning across all the various components of living. The Western concept for a society based on science at moments seems insufficient for assessing lifestyle today. To address the inner worlds of people and their creative impetus by now constitutes an act of defiance in Western society, although it could conversely be argued as the spirit of life in nature. Creativity, beauty, freedom to play seem to be without an apparent aim with respect to survival, even though these traits are found in life’s every detail--whether when looking at culture, our economy or the universe at large. People might do well to acknowledge their mutual responsibility toward one another, developing an effective strategy of cohabitation for the good of all, even as they pursue individual objectives and desires. Artists, given their liberty to follow personal paths and ideas, are perhaps more likely to be connected to the spiritual as they shape their own inner visions and probe the external world through the lens of self.

THE UNIVERSE IS BUILT ON A PLAN... engages diverse cultural idiosyncrasies and perspectives to explore how these particular themes shape studio practice today. To what extent does art assume its own life, whether through cross-cultural intervention or through recording and representing life?

How does art both fulfill the autonomy of the individual and address the challenges of society as a whole? Posing these and other questions, the exhibition investigates the spiritual and inspirational drives within art-making today, and attempts to formulate questions about what kind of life-quality can be developed in this collaborative era.

Jovana Popic

explores in addition to a specific location the transcendent level of existence. As our spatial perception is always influenced by architecture, it is also an expression of an inner thought process. Because even unspoken thoughts often remain, the young artist dares working to make the energy of a place visible. Extremely impressive in its facilities is the intimate interplay between material space and the fleeting acting work, which is composed of drawings, objects and phosphorescent polyester, videos or sound installations. The focus of her productions are the people who must get involved with their feelings and thoughts and then can trace the artistic devotion by Jovana Popic to culture and history of the place, but also of nature.

Jovana Popic (*1977, Zadar/CRO) studied painting and multimedia at the University of Belgrade/RS and at the University of Fine Art in Berlin. She was often awarded (in 2009 with the Meisterschüler Award of the University of Arts) and participated in 2003 at the Venice Biennale.

Nicole Loeser

How do you come to a point of satisfaction in terms of questioning the perception of our so-called Western world?

Jovana Popic

Like so many other artists, I’m trying to look at the world from a unique vantage point and then present what I learn from that. In this process, I’m particularly interested in focusing on the aspects of our world that aren’t so visible, as opposed to those things that we can readily see all around us.

What is the most important point, which you want to visualize for the preceptors of your artwork?

JP: In my most recent project my interest was investigation of the identity in the today’s society, by trying to figure out what identity means today and how it‘s established and manipulated through contemporary tools and cultural tendencies.

In an earlier project I focused on the unconscious, subjective and intuitive elements of our comprehension. My intention was to revive an ancient understanding about inner perception of the outer world, which has been replaced today with more functionalist explanations of vision.

In the village in former war area in Croatia, my work developed out of need to reestablish the connection

with this devastated area. My artworks were the medium for making those relations visible again.

Where do you find your inspiration? Do you find it in spiritual trains of thoughts or do you, so to say, consume it from the outside?

Jovana Popic

My inspiration comes from both sources. The relation between my thoughts, feelings and reflections with the outer World is in the root of my motivation for making an artwork. But when I go deeper and try to define the nature of that very first, initial point or event in the process of my artistic creation, I think that this act is happening on the subconscious levels of my being. It is a sort of vision which is only partially based upon previous experience. It lasts for a very short moment, maybe few seconds. My task is to recognize this momentary vision and to connect it with my impressions on the outer World.

Do you find spirituality is being practiced sufficiently?

JP: In everyday society, I think spirituality holds little importance because most wouldn’t consider it necessary for fulfilling their every day needs. Lack of concentration might also be a reason that spirituality is so dismissed today. Furthermore, a fundamental element to practicing spirituality actively is time. I think that maybe western civilization has advanced under the presumption that technological and industrial progress would afford us more time, but in most circumstances we find ourselves with the sensation of having less time, not more.

How much spirituality do objects or materials contain for you?

JP: I have an animistic attitude towards the objects and materials that surround me. Primarily, I am trying to define the invisible characteristics that they contain for me. And so I focus on building a relationship with them.

Do you think we are confident with our identity in comparison to other cultures?

JP: I would say that many of the people around me in today’s Western society seem insecure and apprehensive. However much we may have an in-born survival instinct that manifests itself as insecurity, our culture conditions us to be insecure as well. Although media feeds us information that tells us our civilization and lifestyle are among the best in the world, but the effect isn’t necessarily one of heightening our sense of security. On the contrary, there are all kinds of factors that make us insecure and closed-minded, discouraging us to take interest in other cultures. Maybe part of it is about the instinct to protect what we have. Maybe we’re searching for our identities outside of ourselves by imitating that which has been socially approved and marketed. I think that societies with lower economic and industrial/ technological progress, who are not so driven by economic goals, are quite likely to be more confident in their own inner identity.

Do you think the universe is built on a plan?

JP: We want to believe that the universe is built on a plan. Religions are created to give us security within their constructs. I think it is human nature to create systems and give plausible explanations about the universe and about the reasons of our existence within it. But we do not know if it is only structure created by our imagination or if something else out there really exists—some overwhelming, omniscient, something of a divine plan, which is bigger than we are and which we can perceive and comprehend only rarely.

Science continues to provide new proposals and possibilities, if not outright answers, but the assurance of eternal life is far more attractive and comforting than the uncertainties that science as yet leaves open.

In my own work process, there is a certain point in which the artwork starts to live its own, assuming an independent life and revealing its own character. This character of a work isn’t necessarily something that I create, and once initiated, its life isn’t something I can control anymore. For me, this event of the uncontrolled independent character of the artwork coming to being is clearly visible in the process of drawing. I always have a feeling that this uncontrolled part in the process of creation comes from something outside, and moves towards me. Perhaps this is a tiny piece of some universal plan being revealed to me, as it forms in the creative process of making artwork. But the fragments of this plan make themselves evident only through the traces left on the paper’s surface.

Raha Rastifard

The idea of juxtaposing one‘s self with the spirituality of another person has been an instrument used by the Iranian, Berlin based, artist looking at history through her own desires. The series „I and...“ shows the artist melting her personality together with another person‘s spirituality.

With people who inspired her, no matter where they come from, she presents a pure moment between the past and the present.

Raha Rastifard (*1975, Tehran/IR) studied photography, painting and art history at the National University of Art, Tehran and at the Free University, Berlin. She participated in numerous international exhibitions, in 2011 her work has been shown in Berlin, Tehran, Shanghai/CN and Delhi/IND.

How do you get to a point of satisfaction considering the impeachment of the general observation of our world?

Raha Rastifard

As an artist I observe our world and its questioning, which seems to be paradox for me, much more intensely. As every artist I prove existence with my artwork.

In this context satisfaction is of an existential meaning, because an artist, who creates an artwork in some moment, is able to withstand the unbearable controversies of our world and to feel satisfied.

What inspires you? Do you feel inspired by your own spiritual thoughts or do you so to say consume inspiration from the outside?

RR: My observations, my life-circumstances, my own experiences and my studies in fine arts, philosophy, politics and sociology are the most important sources of inspiration for me. I feel inspired as well of my own thoughts and inner personality as of things happening around me.

What do you think about ‚consuming‘ inspiration?

RR: As an artist I feel inspired of many things ‚outside‘ myself, either consciously or subconsciously. But this does not have any influence on my decision on the aesthetics of an artwork. As Kierkegaard says: „The moment of a decision is a moment of deliriousness.“ When I create an artwork, I think it is such a moment of deliriousness.

Is emotionality something important for you?

RR: Yes, it is important, because I believe that the arts cannot exist without any emotion. Because of my Persian background emotionality is an inseperable part of my life.

Do you believe that in our modern world one can find a lack of emotionality in general? Do you excogitate this theme in your artwork?

Raha Rastifard

Yes, I do excogitate this theme in my artwork. I think, that our modern world will become more and more like that, although a modern world does not mean a world without emotion automatically, but maybe a world against tradition.

Plutarch says character is nothing more than a boring habit. What do you think about this?

RR: If he talks about the human character, I believe it‘s not quite wrong. But I think, that a human being decides about his or her behaviour him or herself. Although a character is of importance, this means, behaviour always might have the same shape, which then again is boring. To overcome boredom, modern human beings have been concerned about modernity. That‘s why I also think a modern character is quite diverse and not so boring. If an artist always works at one certain theme and character, this might be boring, but this has nothing to with the character of the artist him or herself, but with the character of the artwork.

Do you believe, that in Western society there is a lack of spirituality and mindful contention?

RR: Yes I kind of see this happening in Western Europe.

Do you rather have spiritual moments or is spirituality a part of your everyday life?

RR: The biggest part of my life is spiritual. I am from the orient and there people observe the whole world with the help of spiritual moments. That‘s one of the reason why I also have these moments. But how much spirituality can be part of my everyday life depends on which situation of life I am in.

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Trained as a photographer and interested in Hindu spirituality AndrE Wagner creates photos that are informed by social movements, architecture and especially nature. He photographs the natural movement of light producing a surrealistic effect of energy that when combined with the rotation of the earth, as André puts it “leads man to delve into the mystic knowledge down deep in his soul.” His unique gift is the sensual way of perceiving internal and external phenomena of a situation.

By his in-depth research into the deformation and integration of scenery shapes, he generates imaginary forms through the element of fire that are often seem unreal, but always illusory and engaging. giving the expression of the idea of ithe element fire as the source of creation and revelation.

André Wagner (*1980, Burgstädt/DE) has entered prestigious competitions and won several distinguished prizes. Exhibitions have taken the young photographer so far throughout Europe, China, New Zealand and the USA.

Nicole Loeser

What does spirituality mean for you?

André Wagner

Spirituality for me happens in the inside. It‘s nothing superficial and also does not have anything to do with materialism. The focus lies beyond the layer of past and future. It‘s the present, the moment which is important. Why? Past has already passed, it‘s not to change but future isn‘t there yet. Where do I have space to interact then? In the present or in the moment, where one is able to be preoccupied totally by observing, reflecting and changing anything contemporarily.

Photography is able to give a much differentiated picture of a single moment. If I am conscious about what happens around me and if I am able to observe it, it creates many questions and leads to a constant term of self-reflexion. Photography is my medium to communicate myself, to provoke questions and to show experience.

Since when have you been interested in Eastern philosophy? Why have you started to make it a theme in your work?

AW: Since my youth I have been interested in life considering all its different shapes, not only in Eastern philosophy. Eastern philosophy communicates a simple clearness of life through its inherent wisdom.

These principles of life have become part of my thinking and affect my work subconsciously. The different philosophical aspects are visible in my photographs, when I adopt different themes which I want to focus on. For example both elements fire and water. If they are themes in a single photograph they are able to counteract or to produce a certain kind of excitement. If you take them out of a context of nature, they are both part of creation. Fire gives us warmth and light, water preserves our body.

Philosophy has helped me to watch different aspects. In the Indian myth of creation there it is spoken about 5 elements and how these are built up on each other. Also they believe that those 5 elements (air, fire, water, earth and space) are standing for creation itself, because they are contained in everything, in the

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materialistic world and also in bodies of beings. In the materialistic world a permanent change happens. It‘s a law of nature. It means creation, conservation but also destruction. Something accrues, stays for some time and then falls apart. I want to inspire people with my work to consider everything as being connected.

(Photograph „Torchlight“) Do you believe we are living in a world growing together or rather growing apart?

André Wagner

We will be confrontated with extern influences and through this often will be distracted subconsciously and won‘t appreciate essential values of life. This might be the cause for our own sub consciousness. The own enjoyment often is more important than sharing it with each other.

How are you reaching a point of satisfaction in rapid everyday life?

AW: I go by my own speed and try not to enforce different things. This is what I find in photography again and again. When I take a picture, everything has to be right. A good photo always has something to to with the right moment, the right position and the attitude of mind, which one has in that certain moment. This moment, in which I find the situation, in which everything seems to be working, is something very magical for me. I know, when I come to a place like that, there is something waiting for me which I have been searching for a long time. Pictures I do are like staircases I climb up... I would say they are like the top of a mountain which you have reached looking for the magic of the moment... (Photograph „Spiritual Stairs“) How do you find your inspiration?

AW: In my case I feel inspired by a certain situation or by nature itself. I let myself be guided. I love to travel and to discover the world. On my journeys I often have ideas, themes and questions. I am looking for places and situations which give some answers and inspirations for my photographs. For example a yellow rinser on my lense will only let through yellow light, blue light won‘t get through onto the film. That means everything

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which has the power to be my model inspires me. This inspirations starts to flow and I dive into the moment and then I am in my element which means to take photographs.

Do you believe the universe is built on a plan?

AW: The law of nature proofs it. A plan always means orderliness; coincidence would mean there was chaos.

I believe nature has a plan. Clouds hover and without vegetation there were no clouds; the law of gravity, the tides, seasons etc. they are only a few examples of everything in nature which happens systematically.

Coincidence is not very powerful in nature.

Which idea did you want to prove with „Three Elements“?

AW: In this motive a lot of ideas and observations flew into the motive at the same time.

I took this photograph in Devaprayag, Himalaya in 2004. Two monks have helped me with the realization of it. My instruction for them was to follow their inner perception at the riverside of Ganges. I gave them an imaginary picture, which said it was same as when heights and low levels of the DAX were presented at trading floors. The river represents fleeting of time, coming and going by, because nothing lasts forever. Fire for me is a symbol of knowledge, which brings some light into the darkness.

How did your collaboration with monks start and why was it so important for you that they carried the fire?

AW: Because monks have dedicated their own life to the question „Who am I?“ and have gained knowledge about it from old religious traditions. They give this to humanity. For me they are optimal carriers of fire and they are quiet thinkers of society. In old scriptures a lack of knowledge is compared to darkness and knowledge is compared to fire, which destroys the ignorance with its light.

Did it make any difference for you to conceive and realize the photographs of the series „Romance of elements“ in different countries?

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André Wagner

In the first pictures of my series „Romance of elements“, fire for me meant the completion of a spray can.

Before that I have been bothered about graffiti. The original word for ‚photography‘ in Greek means „to write with light“. For me it was a change from painting into photography. I wanted to continue my movement in different spaces in form of fire drawings and wanted to employ myself with a new way of making a self-portrait. Usually a self-portrait means to show a body or just a face of oneself. But in „Romance of elements“ the idea of making a self-portrait or rather a portrait rather is important in a metaphysical layer. Another person or I myself move in form of a fire light. Because of that it becomes an impression of time of a movement in space. (Photograph „Torchlight“) If you are looking at a non-spiritual world, what are you looking at?

AW: A durance of time which is shaped by fading fortune and sorrow. Contrasts which repeat again and again, which alternate but don‘t exist at the same time. In Eastern philosophy one speaks about the process of creation, protection and destruction. In my series „Romance of Silence“ I follow the process of temporariness.

Do you think we have reached a point of satisfaction considering the constructions and development of identity in comparison to other cultures? Which cultures reach more or less satisfaction?

AW: Everybody can only reflect this for him- or herself. In every culture there are good and bad influences.

For me the key of satisfaction lies in personal autonomy.

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Veronika Witte (*1962, Ahaus-Wessum in

Westfalen/DE) creates a reflexive place, which shows identity as a complex construct. Originating in classical sculpture, Veronika Witte works on an enlarged „portrait concept“, which she pursues in a multi-disciplined scheme, thereby creating a space where art, theatre and science meet and referring to subjects like identity construction or new developments influencing our „social body“. she invents questionnaires, interviews and surveys. On the occasion of a residence on the Veitnamese island Phu Quoc she made a survey with inhabitants and tourists concerning the „concept of an island“, and its subjectively perceived ecological-social state. Locals and tourists were questioned about geographical proportions and relations, as well as their personal reliable points of view on the island. They were invited to use only their internal sense of physical measurement and subjective imagination. This method was evolved into a so-called “individual mapping“.

The installation “Coconut Prison” combines a video projected towards a rice field on the ground, representing in its shape the outline of all the drawings like a fictional island itself, onto which the projected drawings float like a fluidamorphous organism from border to border of the rice field.

Veronika Witte studied at the Ecôle Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris/FR. The multimedia artist has been invited to numerous exhibitions thoughout Europe and Asia and received several awards. Since 1999 she has been working closely with theaters (1999-2005 staatsbankberlin) and created stage design for the Saarland State Theater/ DE and the State Theater Bielefeld/DE).

Nicole Loeser

What does identity mean for you?

Veronika Witte

I think identity is a very liquid state.

As defined by Wikipedia ‘identity‘ characterizes the human being as an individual, marked by beeing different to other people´s characteristic and nature.

In another (social) psychological sense ‘identity‘ often is meant by the combination of features that help to reveal an individual apart from others. This begins with the unique self-identity among which I would be the body and the various group identities, to which I would like to include all group affiliations such as family, cultural background, life situation, etc. ....

But all these write-ups, features and distinctions have many pitfalls, because even at the most basic attribution, the two-sex sexual identity begins to solve the problem ... even this pattern is too narrow. I can be both biologically, I feel like a man and woman to be biologically and visa versa ...

How does your work focus on this theme?

VW: Originally coming from sculpture I‘m working on an extended portrait term that I follow multidisciplinary and diverse, while exploring intersections between art, science and theatre. For 10 years I used the instrument of inquiry in the form of questionnaires and interviews, which will then become the basis for artistic works such as my video work „Coconut prison“ showing in the exhibition, or in my long-term field research institute „ISF“.

In my installations and video works, I‘m experimenting with performative strategies of the self structure, the relationship between body image and the influence of such as life science and new biotechnology to it. I focus the attention to the questions: How are we constructed? What is the significance of biographical, social, cultural and scientific context in relation to the body or the identity of the individual? For some time, building elements in my videos like the language or the telling have become more important than identity.

At the end of a field research there is always a distinct sculptural presentation with videos, sculptures, or

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even large-scale theatrical installations. As diverse the range of my work seems there is a survey of the relationship between appearance, form and essence, for example unstable body contours like in my video „Baal“ from the blur of the background to solve, to focus and then dissolve or like in my recent work the change of repeatedly passed-tales by the subjective recallling its contents, loses sense and becomes a different form.

Do you think we are confident with our identity in comparison to other cultures?

VW: The green grass is always greener somewhere else, isn’t it? I do not know if other cultures are more satisfied with their identity. I can not answer the questions without knowing the people. The question is rather, in which personal and social structures we grew up, how they shape(d) us and how we need to behave and what we are looking for. Through the encounter with the stranger, we experience a friction on the skin of our identity and perhaps a membrane destabilization of existing structures, which works for everyone different. The permeability of the filters and the appropriation of one‘s own heart (as if it exists) are crucial.

Do you think it is possible to shape a sense of identity in a quick-growing, consume-orientated world?

VW: Of course this is possible because we have no alternative. Because we live when we live and need to develop an attitude. It‘s simple. We have to go through it.

At the oversupply of styles and numerous ways of consumption and offers of additional virtual identities I admit it is not easy to create values, but every core will still remain open and flexible. But it is necessary to think about, what do I need for me, and what individual, social or environmental values remain after what I have left. But we have to value diversity and choice and then decide how to form our identity and create our self-determination.

200 years ago I would have answered your questions - I mean if I would have been in that social class to be asked a question to- only under a pseudonym of a man. So nowadays I have the task to ask myself whether it is important for my identity, due to environmental reasons not to travel to Asia or if I should require a particular cell phone brand ....

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Why do you think is it important to find out more about your own identity?

Veronika Witte

…the more you know, the more you are afraid.... Or, if you are here alife, it should make sense and be fun.

What does ‚social body‘ mean for you?

VW: I mean the social body with all the bells and whistles.

Do you think the universe is built on a plan?

VW: I do not know. If so, there is not everything as smooth, I mean the methods of transmission patterns are similar to the process of „feeding post“. ... I do not know if all was meant, but it‘s interesting to be a grain of this pattern.

To not go into any chaos theories with butterfly wings or monotheistic divine metaphysical ideas and I quote an extract from Ernst W. Uthemann to my work „Coconut Prison“ from my last catalog „Liquid Identities“: „Without the necessity of theoretical justification we reveal only through the intuition, the knowledge that even in the age of extensive networking, the addition of individual performances is not synonymous with established facts, so that the idea may be only a fiction of an era that believed the world to understand if they will collect only the maximum amount of information about them. But this one can now understand it as an opportunity, what emerges from the interlocking of many individual ideas, is a beautiful color picture of the world.“

Where do you find your inspiration?

VW: That depends on what concerns me. Everywhere my antennas are in motion as the probe of a screw or like the nose of a dog that is looking for interesting smells, inspiration is not localized, it is unpredictable and I can not force it, which is very volatile. But I want to keep it and the rest is work and luck.

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Michael Zheng’s works are

inspired by both the Eastern and Western world and take a look at social systems, for which he prefers to provide a new order. He often creates situations that challenge established positions and question, so that new perspectives are created.

On July 27, 2004, the artist made a performance at the Geographical Center of Europe in Lithuania.

Standing between the two official monuments that mark the Center(s) of Europe (the newer is a bit further away next to the older one), he whistled out the phrase “CENTER OF EUROPE” repetitively in Morse Code. As part of the piece, this event was broadcast on the Lithuanian National Public TV Nightly news. He chooses the space between the real and singular architectures, and synthesizes their utopic constructions in which solids and voids, using the Morse code, balance each other out.

Michael Zheng (*1965, Fujian/CN) is a performance and conceptual artist. After being a software engineer at Silicon Valley, he studied at the San Francisco Art Institute and the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. Exhibitions led the artist already all over the world. In 2010 his work was exhibited at the Marina Abramovic Institute in San Francisco. 2009-2011 he was a participant in the Vancouver Biennale in Canada.

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Nicole Loeser

What do you find is the difficulty of our growing together world and what is its advantage?

Michael Zheng

The main difficulty for coexistence in this world lies in the bigotry on both state and personal levels, rooted in ego-driven thinking patterns. The prevailing will to power in political, economical and personal behaviors makes coexistence a challenge by definition.

One thing that alleviates this situation is the force of globalization. The world shrunken by means of transportation and electronic communication is all of a sudden very small. The ancient wisdom that all is interconnected has become much more obvious. It is no longer an option not to learn to co-exist.

See the rippling effect of the Arab Spring on the entire world, including on the behavior of the Chinese regime. And also see the effect of the rise of China on the world, economically and otherwise. This osmosis is happening also in cultural and spiritual realms.

Do you find we are positioned in a growing together world or is it to be called growing apart, even if international mindsets drift around continents?

MZ: The globalized world has the potential to bring us together. But we seem to choose to continue to live in a way that divides us. Within a society, just look at the deep-rooted patriarchal social structure.

It’s set up to systematically achieve dominance of some parts of the society over the rest. International politics operate in the same manner. On a personal level, the need to dominate is equally insidious but takes on more varied forms. From international wars to class struggle to personal politics, the root of these conflicts is in the ego’s insatiable need to prevail.

On the other hand, it does not have to be this way. The need to distinguish can be respected without resorting to dominance. Tolerance is an important tool towards that. However, to achieve universal tolerance, one has to start on an individual level, by seeing the nature of one’s ego. A true liberation or even enlightenment can be achieved through that practice on an individual level, which in turn cultivates a society that operates on the principle of tolerance and true respect for each other’s

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individuality, instead of dominance.

Do you think the consumption of inspiration exists and is a legitimate process or do you believe in finding ideas when there is a predominant, surrounding silence?

Michael Zheng

I think it’s one and the same thing. Many people find their inspirational process through practice, by inculcating a sensibility that sifts out surrounding noise and achieving a certain stillness of the mind, which opens itself up so that ideas could come in.

Do you think there is a lack of spirituality and mindful contestation with environmental processes in the western world?

MZ: Absolutely. While it’s not solely a western phenomenon, I think the lack of spirituality is more prevalent in the west. The force of consumption seems to have contributed to it, among other factors.

However, I personally think that there is a reversal of this phenomenon globally. It’s not a secret these days that more people in the west are drawn to the spiritual practices that originated in the east. Take yoga for instance. More people in the west are practicing yoga than in the east. It is a fascinating phenomenon to me, a very complex one. Needless to say, the form of yoga that’s popular in the west was created by the early western spiritual/cultural seekers who went to the east, to address the physical and spiritual needs of the west. Similarly, the Taoism and Buddhism as thoughts are getting more and more attention and followers in the west. I for one, have become much more interested in these thoughts after I’ve been in the west. So there is definitely a global osmosis going on.

Do you have spiritual moments or do you find your daily life in a condition of spirituality?

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Michael Zheng

I try to live a life of awareness. In that sense, it has a quality of spirituality. I don’t believe I have spiritual moments, such as some people seeing god. But I do have moments when I feel extremely in touch with myself, and with the surrounding world. Those are moments of incredible clarity that sometimes bring tears to my eyes.

But I don’t see them as isolated moments. They are really part of the continuum of living in a certain way.

If you look at a non-spiritual world, what do you look at?

MZ: Egos. And they are laughable (my own included.)

Do you feel confident in your surrounding world?

MZ: Of course this is a complex issue, and a personal one. It is by nature multi-faceted and changes with time.

When I am more in touch with my own being, I feel very confident in my surrounding world, because of a certain embracing quality I feel from being in touch with my own nature. But I also have my own moments when I feel I am driven more by the external world. In those moments, I tend to feel un-grounded.

What for you is the biggest difference of western and eastern cultures?

To paraphrase Vaclav Havel: “In the west, everything works but nothing matters. In the east, nothing works but everything matters.”

How do they merge together?

Watch our egos. It’s difficult because our history and culture has been promoting egos. It’s not difficult because we each have our own ego and it’s completely up to us what we do with it.

What does the opposite of an eurocentric worldview mean for you?

The realization that eurocentrism is but one form of ego-centrism.

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East, West. Where is the Medium ?

By Gioia Laura Iannilli

Nothing is left to chance in Nicole Loeser’s exhibition, The Universe is built on a plan. Space, artists, ideas and facts—every element is consistent with another. Bringing the works together are multiple themes that include spirituality, inspiration, identity and cross-cultural relations.

And there’s more still: this common horizon of thematically inspired choices is also strictly linked to the media used by the artists: Raha Rastifard (photography, often video art), Andre Wagner (photography, land art, performance in absence of the observer) Veronika Witte (video art, artistic research like questionnaires, multi-media installation, scenography), Jovana Popic, (all media, well-known for her phosphorescence, in early 2012 she even produced a performative installation with voice) and Michael Zheng (performance, installation, video art). A critical analysis lets us investigate further not only the formal level of their artistic activity, but confirms, besides the fil rouge which links them, the idea that the media they employ, are not neutral at all, but are direct operative extensions of the individual result of a peculiar forma mentis set by contingent cultural factors like the historical, material, economic, social and technological.

The aim of this brief text is to give multiple inputscharting a short course through the words of some of XX Century thinkers, the works of the five artists showing at SAVVY, the different media they using and the meaning that a Latin dictionary gives of the word Medium- which hopefully

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will generate more questions in the reader about technology, the relationship between East and West, and the “hunt” of a meeting point, which might coincide with the hunt of “our identities”.

Canadian philosopher and ‘culturologist’ Marshall McLuhan’s (1911-1980) precept, The Medium is the Message (and why not, the massage, but this point will be explained afterwards) fits perfectly this context, sounding almost like a modern Perspective as Symbolic Form, by the elder art historian Erwin Panofsky (1892-1968).

In order to justify the frequent recurrence of ‘medium’ in this text—which is by now a term widely used—it may be useful to trace its origin through the meanings that every single Latin dictionary can give us: Medium ~ neuter form of the adjective medium: means, center, the middle, accessible place, available, visible, public, compromise. To make it clearer, we can start from the first of the meanings provided by the Latin dictionary (although it is extremely difficult not to involve all the other ones together, as they are very close, and the borders are really ephemeral):

1) MEANS: the above-quoted basic themes spirituality, inspiration, identity and cross-cultural relations, are useful to express this first point apparently too easy to get rid of.

Nowadays it is more difficult to understand who we are and who surrounds us, where we are going and what is the meaning of our concrete existence (Dasein).

It is no coincidence that the artists invited to exhibit at Savvy (the project rooms uses the phrase “form ideas”) by Nicole

Loeser (who founded Whiteconcepts “finding contexts for contemporary art”), are somehow at the same time linked to both Eastern and Western world, that almost sound like thesis and antithesis of a so craved synthesis not whole part utopically realizable: on one hand we have the Eastern world, which still keeps concepts and ideals of nature contemplation.

On the other, the West, in which this spirituality seems to be less sizable, because of the unstoppable modernity progress of science and technology. Despite that, the West is also a keeper and promoter of a mobility and growing ideal of affluence, and of a widespread, fast, light communication network, which therefore facilitates the awareness of the actual, underlying and floating presence of an ancestral energy, and of a tight interdependence between nature and man.

The media and methods utilized by the selected artists are fully consistent with the above-stated argument, and as technomorphic relevancies of the contemporary Era: Michael Zheng and Veronika Witte trust in video art. In the Chinese artist’s case, it’s his essential tool for the production and broadcasting on the Lithuanian National Public TV of the performance „Center of Europe“, during which the artist, who for the occasion stood for nine hours at the Geographical Center of Europe in Lithuania, whistled in Morse code the work’s title-homonymous song. In the case of Veronika Witte her work „Coconut Prison“ was created in Vietnam in 2008.

The flux of images, drawings of Phu Quoc Island, projected on a rice field on the floor, clears connections, not only to its material, but also to the traditions of the island.

Raha Rastifard and André Wagner use photography. In the project „I and…“ the Iranian artist Raha entrusts her message to a photomontage whose protagonists are the artist herself and a woman whereby she feels particularly close, nearness traceable through the different levels of the photographic alteration’s aesthetic definition (not to forget the recourse to video art, as I remember her very touching “Suffering”).

Young photographer Wagner’s works (who just came back from a spiritual trip to India) are a mixture of high culture (virtuoso camera technology) and deep contemplation of nature, seeming to detect and draw attention to the net of forces and energies underpinning reality, as mentioned earlier; he can freeze light, that energetic magma which we can’t grab when using only ‘the naked eye’.

The same effect is obtained by the pseudoradioactive phosphorescences by Jovana Popic, which, like her “Atlas of Motion”, makes the energy of a place visible and engages viewers with their spirits and feelings, tracing devotion to a certain culture, history, place and nature.

But let’s note that in this case ‘visible’ refers not only to sense perception but also the cultural heirloom of the Cartesian-Gutenbergian tradition (and steam machine technology as a 3D rectangular projection), during which the rectangular and planar support of the printed page or canvas ruled, favouring, developing and involving only this sense, setting a way of reading that started from one side to the other up and as a consequence a way of approach to the world based on rational and predefined (default) schemes.

Sight advantages a passive, secluded, quiet and mental use, accentuating individualism and bringing Community and

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participatory spirit down. Moreover, “page” and canvas are particularly handy and conveyable, so they were treated/ considered as goods, encouraging private collecting.

So in effect, such a periphrasis goes further than to offer an exclusively visual impact, but refers to a total involvement of the individual, “caught out” and “captured” in his whole polysensoriality. In fact, if we talk about medium, a means, we cannot refer to a still entity, but to a continuous fluxus, a widespread

2) CENTER of energy irradiation.

Here we have the homology between the means used and the contemporary Era, an Electric/Electronic Era, characterized by fast messages, fast recordings and fast fruitions; we can now go back to that wordplay “ The Medium is the MessageMassage”, by McLuhan, whose definition of Electric Era is more than illuminating, because it seems to link all the focal points, clues scattered by now on these pages, giving shape to a more-than-punctual thought: in the Canadian culturologist’s opinion, it (the Electric Era) is characterized by a return to a tribal-kind spirit and its social dynamics, even on worldwide scale.

This Era summarizes the extensions of all senses: electric (and electronic) technology (not specialized), retribalizes. Electric/Electronic people are living in one space which resounds of “tribal drums”: the Global Village!

And the latter is the same village where the artists of “The universe is built on a plan…” are living and researching.

Besides the use of technological media, more or less “new”, (some may argue that photography is a historically defined medium and not so recently invented as on the other hand is video art, and I am referring to Raha Rastifard and Andrè

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Wagner, but if we look closer to this latter artist’s works, we immediately realize that the use of photography is an “expedient” to obtain, generating an epiphany, deeper and stronger kinetic energies appear. Apart from the traditional planar support used in photography a closer examination of “I and…” by Raha Rastifard, shows the peculiar kind of definition of the image which characterizes its “conceptuality”: some of the images used by the artist are in fact only apparently each other juxtaposed, without any mimetic care, but to every level of image definition corresponds a level of proximity to the character, so, in this case we could talk about normalized technology, or rather about a mastery of the medium, such that the artist, a technological native as she is young, can “play” with it, even with its more elementary functions). The shown artistic operators interbreed high and low technology (Veronika Witte, who uses video projections on rice), use alternative means of communication, even amenable to the beginning of the Electric Era (ref. to Michael Zheng’s use of Morse code), phopsphorescences which dilate themselves in space (Jovana Popic), stimulating our sensorial faculties, making us open up to new sensory horizons, maybe still dormant; but the investigation conducted by the artistic subject, is never an end in itself, but it widens until it matches with the identity research of the individual who participates in the observation of the work, also because we are “One, no one and One Hundred Thousand”, and with the concept of multisensoriality, after showing up the concept of multipersonality, promulgated by writer Filippo T. Marinetti (1876-1944) at the beginning of the XX century, which is made possible by art, through which one can intensify and clarify the research about identity, story and places, that, eventually, is the same as of the whole universe.

Hence the declaration of identity between art and life (“Life’s always right.”, still by F.T. Marinetti), from which, the means used by the artists, in hindsight, in every era are actually charged of a powerful conceptuality.

There is therefore adhesion and continuity with the deep structure of the Contemporary.

Helpful in this regard is to trace briefly the various connotations that have characterized conceptuality in art history since the 1960s: it was used over reality, when the noethic area “didn’t get along” with reality (i.e. Joseph Kosuth), but now it finds a reference to reality, a relation to the world through which it unfolds itself with a language perfectly consistent to the new technologies. The latter, in fact, have the task of doing fast translations of solutions from both the ideal and the concrete world area.

Video art fits perfectly this ideal and material openness: it occurs with the demolition of an elite circumscription, it lets your self expand everywhere, through an opening-to-and-into-the-world-process.

We can participate more in the world’s society, individually. It is, with all the new media arts a democratic art.

Here it comes to the last of meanings from the Latin dictionary:

3) ACCESSIBLE PLACE, available, visible, public, compromise.

Medium as mediator, “architect” of a place, (not suspended from time and space, but in continuous flow with it.

As the French philosopher Henri-Louis Bergson (1859–1941) drew his concept of duration, „Immediate experience and intuition are more significant than rationalism and science for understanding reality…An embraced life also consists of non-rational, creative and dynamic elements.” An epiphanic

and accreting, revealing and conciliate place; a sort of Satori, which in the Japanese Zen tradition stands for an enlightment and literally means “understanding”. Satori refers to the experience of kensho, which is a term used in Zen, meaning “seeing into one’s true nature”. Ken means “seeing” sho means “nature”, “essence”.

It is a moment in which the whole personal and cosmic experience is projected and there is no more difference between who gets widely awaken and the “observed object”.

Well, this is exactly the feeling you have coming into “contact” with the artworks chosen for “The universe is built on a plan…”: they form a synaesthetic, rational and emotional involvement, concretion of technology and spirituality through which the world democratically opens to us and we open to it as in a medial unison, where Eastern and Western worlds seem to come a little closer to each other.

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Bibliography “New Media Art”, Mark Tribe/Reena Jana, curated by Uta Grosenick, Taschen 2006 “Videoart”, Silvya Martin, curated by Uta Grosenick, Taschen 2006 “Die Perspective als “symbolische Form”, Erwin Panofsky, Vorträge, Leipzig-Berlin, 1927 “The Medium is the Massage. An Inventory of Effects.”, Marshall McLuhan, Bantam Books, New York, London, Toronto, 1967 “Duration and Simultaneity, with Reference to Einstein‘s Theory”, Henry Bergson, translated by Leon Jacobson, Indianapolis : Bobbs – Merrill, 1965 “Sein und Zeit”, Martin Heidegger, Niemeyer, 1963 “Ambiente/Arte. Dal Futurismo alla Body Art”, Germano Celant, Edizioni La Biennale di Venezia, Venezia, 1977

EXHIBITION The universe is built on a plan...

21.01.2012 - 10.02.2012 CONCEPT / CURATOR Nicole F. Loeser - WHITECONCEPTS ARTISTS Jovana Popic (CRO-SER) / Raha Rastifard (IR-DE) / AndrĂŠ Wagner (DE) / Veronika Witte (DE) / Michael Zheng (CN-USA) Project Coordination Romina Farkas Translation Romina Farkas, Claudia Lamas Cornejo PUBLISHER Dr. Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung Art Director and Initiator SAVVY CONTEMPORARY PRESS OFFICE Claudia Lamas Cornejo

CONTACT SAVVY CONTEMPORARY e.V., Richardstr. 43/44, 12055 Berlin www.savvy-contemporary.com

“There is no such thing as an empty space or an empty time. There is always SOMETHING to see, something to hear. In fact, try as we may to make a silence, we cannot” John Cage

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Nicole F. Loeser would like to thank very specially all the artists who have agreed to the publication of their texts and to Zvezdana Novakovic for her vocal performance on an object by Jovana Popic.

Thanks to Dr. Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung, Claudia Lamas Cornejo, Cilgia Gadola, Raisa Kröger, Jaime Schwarz, Johanna Ndikung, Ioana Montenescu, Mikołaj Golubiewski, Ariane Rutz, Marcio Carvalho, Romina Farkas, Gioia Laura Iannilli, Greg Murr, Berlind Wagner. © 2012 SAVVY CONTEMPORARY BERLIN © Nicole F. Loeser © Gioia Laura Iannilli for her text © Dr. Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung for his text © The interviewees for their texts © Reproduced images: the artists All rights reserved Printed in Germany

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The universe is built on a plan...