Feeling the World
Susanne Magdalena Karr ? ?? Mentorin und freie Autorin
Leben statt überleben: Gib dir selbst die Erlaubnis, Verbundenheit zu erfahren und tauch ein in die Sch?nheit der Verwandlung.
Tour through the exhibition of Marina Abramovi? at the Krinzinger Gallery in Vienna
A clear look straight ahead, into and through the soul of the subject. Head and face in the lower third of the picture, above a long pointed conical hat. Red. Or yellow. It acts like a connection between the inner and outer world, an optically amplified antenna.?
The comparison with antennae suggests itself. "I want to deal with intuitive knowledge," the artist says in an interview, "I want to live in synchronicity, where you are so attuned to existence, your self and your surroundings, that things happen without effort."
As a performance artist, Marina Abramovi? has repeatedly involved the audience, bundling the energy of the many and using it to create incredibly dense atmospheres of shared moments.
The Energy Clothes, on the other hand, appear as an audience-independent way to connect with the life energies all around. In the live performances, the tangible energy of those present takes center stage. Through the instruments of the Energy Clothes - Energy Hat, Energy Band and Energy Mask, i.e. magnetized tools such as hat, chest bandage or blindfold - on the other hand, another connection is conveyed: the continuously existing floating energy currents of the universe that accompany life.?
The aesthetic realisation has something playful, as if the artist smiles at us. As if she would deprive of their basis all strained attempts to force something seriously and according to plan. As in the large-format photographs in the gallery, where we see her ironing or watering flowers. She wears the red energy hat while doing so.
The hats are also present as objects in the exhibition. As a sentient extension, they recall the antennae functions of horns and feelers of certain animals.
-There is something I would like to comment on, Okapi says. -As someone with such antennae. It slowly sways its head back and forth, so that the horns can be seen from several perspectives.
-So you also communicate with the horns? Zebra wants to know.
-Yes. Perhaps you already know that a horn is a sensory organ, supplied with blood up to the tip and interwoven with many fine nerve fibers. And it also serves the sense of touch.?
-So it is a kind of cognitive tool beyond sight and hearing and the thought processes of the intellect - is that what you are saying?
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- Yes. As a sense organ, the horn is for perception. By the way, this is also true of other horned animals such as rhinos or cows. Horns also support communication, and horned animals have more precise and complex perception than hornless conspecifics.
During Adrian Heathfield's opening speech for the exhibition, there was a reference to the magic hats of the Middle Ages. For conical hats like those at Energy Clothes were supposedly also worn by the philosopher Duns Scotus and his students. These sorcerer's hats actually belong to the realm of magic. Thus the witch's hat symbolizes the holy three: with the top, which reaches into the sky, contact is made with the universe, while the broadening at the bottom, as an opening to the head, leads into consciousness. Apparently, the philosopher was convinced by the idea that wearing a pointed hat could help attract knowledge. Or was it about intercepting ideas from the cosmos? About amplifying intuition, as in Marina Abramovi?'s work??
Intuitive knowledge occurs in a kind of extended outlook that includes sense perceptions. This position of Duns Scotus was extremely exceptional in the 13th century, because it brings an unpredictably subjective element into the supposedly well-ordered system of clear and distinct cognition.
In this way, the Energy Clothes can also be understood as instruments to retrieve, transfer and release energies. They call for the soulful participation of those who use them and also inspire viewers to engage with energy flows and bring them into balance. According to the artist, she wants to prepare the audience to leave their busy lives and enter a focused state of mind.
In addition to the large-format photo series, videos, objects, and drawings are on view, also from earlier creative periods. The artist's desire to share her work with her audience and to explore energy currents between performer and viewers can be discerned as a leitmotif. An installation was conceived especially for the exhibition in Vienna. It creates trance-like time delays in the dark space through tubs of beguilingly scented chamomile and a canvas on which movement creeps in as if in an edited photograph. And an unexpectedly vivid presence. In the fall, Marina Abramovi? will be the first female artist to have a solo exhibition at the Royal Academy in London.
Galerie Krinzinger, Seilerst?tte 16, 1010 Wien; on view until Juli 29, 2023;?
curated by Sydney Fishman?