A LOVE Supreme
Even lovers need a little distance from each other now and then. And so painting - my long-time love supreme - currently recedes in order to give room to different, fascinating art projects.
[Isn't art so much more than just painting?
Maybe it is art: my love supreme?]
I believe that the motivation behind most of my activities is quite generally the pursuit of both, world and self knowledge. Painting is a path to this goal. On the long walk from an empty canvas to a finished painting there is a lot of room for thought and gaining clarity (2). And in the end I do not see any other option. I am a spiritual being - but if I hand over control to the autopilot I will move on circular paths and receive the same again and again: a distorted perception of reality, my own projection, overlaying reality (3).
2026 I am currently in the midst of deep soul-searching on my own behalf, engaging in benevolently guided introspection, changing my working model, establishing new perspectives, patterns, and actions. This work is intense, but extremely enriching. It empowers me and removes obstacles from my path that I wasn't even aware existed.
Some of this leaves its mark on exhibition contributions.
2024 My painting is still on hold, and I visit my studio happily, but rather sporadically. My studies and the Zwischenraum-project had exhausted me. I need and allow myself time to relax and recharge my batteries. I resume work on no2DO, my long-term project that I have been working on since 2008: a contemporary approach to the I Ching (1).
I take photographs (Instagram), do collages (Catalyst), make music, and dance.
2021/2022 seem to be years in which I am able to complete projects that have been with me for a long time. On the one hand, there is my philosophy degree, which I finished in 2021 with a thesis entitled Everyone is an artist! Or: Art as Prototyping. Another project is Zwischenraum Sterben (project website: www.der-zwischenraum.de), an exhibition project that I have been developing since 2019 with a team of artists, theologians, and medical professionals. We were finally able to realise it in 2022 after delays related to the pandemic. From 8 to 15 October 2022, Zwischenraum offered Munich citizens the opportunity to learn about end-of-life care in an accessible setting, with an exhibition and evening events.
One of my contributions to the exhibition project Zwischenraum Sterben was the video series "An der Schwelle", which I produced in collaboration with Christophe Schneider. In 21 interviews (total running time approx. 6 hours), full-time and volunteer hospice and palliative care workers share their stories. They talk about their work, share their experiences and wishes, and give viewers very personal insights into what they do. Details about the project and links to the individual interviews can be found here: An der Schwelle
One of my other contributions to the exhibition was communicative interaction with visitors. I have put down my thoughts on that topic, on communicative-artistic interactivity, in a short article: Polylog: A Collaborative Art Form.
Horizontverschmelzung (2015 - 2021)
Love. Yes, art is indeed my love supreme. But I have yet another love: philosophy. In 2015 I want to put my philosophical thinking on solid footing and start studying. And immediately I get feelings of home: because of the contents. And sometimes alienation: because of occasional hands-off life distance.
The abundance of text that has surrounded my art so far definitely benefits from my philosophical studies. And also my project on the I Ching (1), which I have been working on since 2008. For example, by examining the concept of Wu Wei - non-action - more closely and making it accessible to the Western way of thinking: Wu Wei. An Approximation.. The same is true for Wabi-Sabi, a concept of aesthetics closely associated with Japan and Zen Buddhism, which can perhaps most aptly be described as a way of perceiving or expressing things: Wabi-Sabi – Zen of Things. On Buddhism and Beauty.
Step by step I philosophically work my way through all the topics that have been on my mind since a long tome. For example, the relationship between art and healing: Art and Healing: Criteria for Salutary Art in a Therapeutic Context.. Another of my questions is: How is it possible that a work of art can touch us? In my search for clues, I come across empathy, our human ability to "feel what others feel." But is empathy limited to just that? Or is it eventually possible that empathy is a kind of open communication channel that works in both directions? My reflections, cast in textual form: I and You. A Reflection on the Relationship between Empathy and Art.
Finally, I address the most challenging question of all in my final thesis: Why do people deal with art at all? My answer: Everyone is an artist! Or: Art as Prototyping. I follow the traces of Beuys, argue with models of psychosomatic medicine and finally plead for abandoning the distinction between artist and non-artist.
For art, artistic activity, holds the potential to reassemble things that are broken within our human souls - and thus to heal holistically as individuals and also as humanity as a whole.