C'est la différance, Daniela, c' est la différance

Running down a narrow hidden staircase and being greeted by the words: "C'est la différance, Daniela, c'est la différance!" by the person running up. Well, I know, for unlike you I prefer JD to Vilém Flusser and of course you were infinitely aware of this :-)! - There are still some books you have to return to me, but never mind, as long as you read in them and also read my silly comments and look at my drawings from time to time...
Anyway oddly enough I was thinking about some of the thoughts that are referred to in this video this night and as a reminder got aware of it this morning. My assumption this night was that   art constitutes itself within a "rest" a "surplus" that the artist adds to his work and I will elaborate a little bit more in future posts. For the time being I forward this panel, a transcript and a translation.

 

Transcript: Die kunsthistorischen Termini des "Linearen" und des "Malerischen", des eben mehr Konzeptuellen und des eher Spontanen. (Arrows link "Linearen" with Konzeptuellen, "Malerischen" with Spontanen). Konzeptuellen -> vordenkbar -> Muß dies noch ausgeführt werden? oder: Brauchen wir zum Nachvollzug egentlich Originale?; Spontanen -> unvordenklich

 Translation: The art historical terms of the "linear"(better "design") and the "pictoral", of the more conceptual and the more spontaneous (arrows link "linear"/"design" with conceptual, "pictoral" with spontaneous).

conceptual-> predestined -> Is there any real need to perform it? or: Do we need an original to understand it?; 

spontanenous -> unpredictable

Elusiveness I

Manchmal ist mir so, als gäbe es keine Freiheit (in der Kunst - hinzugefügt 2011) im eigentlichen Sinne mehr, alles wird zu einem riesenhaften Krampf; Heiterkeit, Leichtigkeit und Offenheit sind Tugenden, die die Kunst leider im Leistungsdenken, Über - lebenskampf verliert.
Das Parergon lebt in form des White Cube, keiner will mehr den Sockel, aber alle machen sich Sorgen um den Rahmen , in dem ihre Kunst ausgestellt wird.
Nie waren sich Kunst und Leben fremder.Vielleicht, weil Versuche unternommen werden, sie immer mehr anzugleichen, indem 'Künstler' Lebensformen/ Dienstlesitungen verkünstlichen.
Bringt uns das der "Wahrheit" (dieser Begriff ist schwerlich bis unmöglich zu definieren) tatsächlich näher?
Indem wir die Grenzen immer unauffindbarer machen, sie ignorieren, die Phantasie des Künstlers, wie die des Publikums immer weniger beanspruchen, weil sie schon durch andere Bereiche (Werbung, Fernsehen) überlastet ist?

Ich, irgendwann in den 1990ern...

Don't know yet, lol!!! Watch this space for some explanation pretty soon

It's simply marvellous

It's simply marvellous to walk down a sunny pavement in January listening to

and miraculously feeling exactly like it ...

Fatto a Mano - Thomas the Apostle, Concept Art and Walter Benjamin

The other day I came across an article on the Guardian's theatreblog , somehow this issue has been lurking around for some time - maybe even back to the days when I was still studying art and concept art was so en vogue. I could never ever imagine that it would satisfy me - also erotical btw - to simply tell somebody how to act, what to do and then leave it all to him or her.

There is deep inside of me the desire to be there, to do it, to get myself knee-deep into the mud, to grasp it. And if you wonder what this "it" is, well life, presence, here and now.
Why among other artefacts are the first representations by the cave dwellers impressions of their hands?!

Just like Thomas the Apostle, there is this urge to understand by literally grasping whatever subject, in German "begreifen".

Yet it is "modern" to be virtual, just like this here btw :-), and if Walter Benjamin's predictions  are correct, the aura of the original has been so far neglected by now that it has disappeared.

Yet if one is daring and reverses the reading of Benjamin's The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction, this becomes a strong advocate in favour of  the aura of the original, for Walter Benjamin himself did still observe it and express it (and thereby preserve it inside his text as a possibility). There is this wonderful allusion Jacques Derrida reads in his forename "Walter", he links it to the German verb "walten"/ to rule, which  in German implies the gentle rule of some divine power.

Waterproof oder die Archäologie einer unmöglichen Möglichkeit mit dank an Gerhard!

Dies hier sind gestern wieder aufgetauchte Fragmente eines Beitrags für ein Buch für den Salon Verlag Köln von Gerhard Theewen, das niemals erschienen ist. Tatsächlich sollte es eine Lektüre für die Badewanne mit entsprechendem wasserabweisenden Cover mit dem Titel "Waterproof" sein. Wie in den meisten Fällen von archäologischen (Ööcher: arschäologisch!) Entdeckungen besteht es leider aus Fragmenten, hier sollte der Leser sich selber einen Reim machen. Die nur schwer entzifferbare Handschrift ist transkribiert, außerdem gibt es noch ein paar Fotografien dieser Aktion, deren Echtheit von prominenter Stelle bezweifelt wird.

 

 

 

* physikalische Definition von Feuchte, bitte selber nachschauen, Hoheslied 6, 6 lautet:

deine Zähne blinken wie eine Herde von Mutterschafen, 

die frisch aus der Schwemme steigen 

(Für Jacques Derrida ist das Hohelied ein Beispiel für erhabene Kunst, cf Die Wahrheit in der Malerei)

 

Transkript eins: Das Feuchte als Urzustand, dieser Zustand zwischen vollkommener Trockenheit und radikaler Nässe, das Erfrischende. Das sogenannte türkische Bad, ein Dampfbad. Visionen von nackten Leibern, die sich lasziv der heißen, tropischen Luft hingeben. Diese schwülen Nächte, in denen man nicht schlafen kann, Im sogenannten türkischen Bad... Erquicklicher und anregender ...Was machte Susannah im Bade? War sie in dem Moment der Entdeckung/ Beobachtung tatsächlich die auf keusche Reinlichkeit bedachte Frau? Was sahen die beiden Alten? Bin ich nicht Susannah? Vielleicht währenddessen im Bade und spüre die leichten Tröpfchen von Feuchtigkeit auf meiner Haut, die es ermöglichen, meinen Körper wahrzunehmen. Diese leichte Last, die meine feinen Nerven erregt... Das Feuchte reinigt und giert doch nach Berührung eines anderen, des anderen Körpers. Klamm liegt auf der Haut, den angepreßten Härchen und dringt ein.

Transkript 2: Das zweite Hohelied entführt in den Orient, die Welt der Bibel. Feuchte bedeutet für den, der die Wüste durchwandert, Leben und Fruchtbarkeit. Sofort taucht das türkische Bad auf, desssen feucht-schwüle Atmosphäre mit der europäischen Feucht-fröhlichkeit so wunderbar kontrastiert. Benebelt sich das Abendland mit Geist, so genießt (schärft sich) das Morgenland mit allen (die) Sinne, die Sinnlichkeit ist hier zu finden (Hause). In feucht schwülen Nächten liege ich oft wach und kann nicht schlafen, schlaflose Nächte, unerträglich fruchtbare Atmosphäre*. Susannah, Susannah, was machst du eigentlich im Bade? - Oder bin nicht ich Susannah
* weiblich, erschreckend, fruchtbar für die Pflanzen, totbringend für Kreislaufkranke

Feuchtsavannen, die Königin von Saba kam aus Äthiopien

PS "Dank U Well"

After the performance of Intergalactic Lovers, while we were trying to get something to drink, among other things the instant death (Mort Subite), some song was played at the bar. My daughter was a little bit puzzled for she did recognize it, but could neither tell title nor performer. A shame the Black Juggler had not been presenting it, lol, for it was The Game by Das Pop

"Dank U Well" - Intergalactic Lovers in Genk 12-03-2011

Me and my daughter being greeted by "Was ist los?/ What's the matter?" by a Flemish person - serves me right :-)!! - "Wij spreken over haar vriendin. Zij is uit Rusland./We were talking about her friend. She's from Russia."

Alas, but good for us, there were not so many people (about 40/50) at the venue, C-Mine cultuurcenter "Kleine Zaal", this evening. The music is wonderfully melodious guitar rock with a lead singer who has got a very distinct voice. Anyway I hope and predict that in future it will be very hard to see them again in such an intimate atmosphere, where it is so well distinguishable that at least two people are truly enjoying playing their respective instruments ;-)!

But the big question for some in the audience was where to clap exactly:

And of course their most recent hit song - at least on Studio Brussel they are quite popular.

The second video definitely shows how much joy and emotions are involved!!!!


BTW now my daughter knows that "Mort Subite" is the best  kriek - a beer made from cherries - she's tasted so far.

Einstein Brain - mehr "Bildungsgrenze" bzw das Allerletzte

Schlußfolgernd aus dem vorherigen Post, scheint das einzige, was die Bildung begrenzen könnte, Tod, Desinteresse - siehe Boccaccios Decamerone (Erotik als Motivation zu Lernen ist sicherlich treffend und wunderbar!!) - und Verwahrlosung zu sein. ;-)

Also manchmal ernsthaft... LOL

Also manchmal frag' ich mich ernsthaft, wie Leute auf diesen Blog stoßen?! Wer immer diesen unendlich dämlichen Begriff "Bildungsgrenze" gesucht hat, verdient entweder meinen absoluten Respekt oder meine ebensolche Verachtung. LOL!!!
Gegeben Zeit und Motivation, ist jeder Mensch in der lage, alles zu lernen.*
Aber bedenke natürlich: Jeder Jeck iss ongisch.

*so lautete jedenfalls die Antwort auf De vraag van vandag (Kann der Mensch alles lernen?)  in De Wereld van Sofie auf Studio Brussel

Translation:

Well, sometimes seriously...LOL

 Well, sometimes I ask myself seriously how people locate this blog?! Whoever has been searching for this infinitely stupid term "Bildungsgrenze" (approximately a limit to learning) either deserves my absolute respect or my likewise contempt.LOL!
Given time and motivation everybody is capable of learning everything.*
But consider: "Jeder Jeck iss ongisch" (Every idiot is different - a Colognian saying)

*this was at least the answer provided to de vraag van vandag (the question of today) - Is a human being able to learn everything? - in De Wereld van Sofie (Sofie's World) on Studio Brussel (radio station)

Wat is kunst? - de blik in haar ogen dat is kunst - Was ist Kunst?

How strangely things turn out to be sometimes. While I was still lamenting a great loss, exactly this loss resulted in me unexpectedly getting an answer to a question I had been posing to Raimund Stecker - in fact the very person, who made me first aware of the problem. Raimund mentioned that to his mind there are basically two kinds of art, first at all the art that is concerned with art history, wanting to enhance it somehow, and then there is art that is authentic. Since I never ever believed in progress, lol, I was very anxious to find out about authenticity. How and when are you authentic? I certainly did pose the question to Raimund, but never got an answer.

Yet a year ago, having one of my paintings in his hands and  noticing that I was more than upset to learn that one of my drawings got lost in the mail, M P stated to somebody else  - translating my feelings to her - that I can never ever do the drawing again. Now I know what authentic implies and I'm more than grateful to him for letting me know.

Sanftmut - Gentleness - Lightness II

What a procession:

Chekhov is sitting at his desk, neatly and unhurriedly he jots something on a piece of paper. Then he gets up, puts on his overcoat, his hat and galoshes, and goes to the corner where a mousetrap has been placed. He comes back, holding a mouse, still alive, by its tail, and goes out on the porch and walks slowly across his garden to the fence, behind which stands a Tartar cementary on a stony hillock. Gently he throws the mouse over the fence ... A tame stork and two small dogs are following behind him.

Ivan Bunin in On Chekhov

And something very contemporary, though being a century old, and at the heart quite deconstructivist :-):

Im übrigen ist Humor eben Humor und hat jederzeit seinen eigenen Sinn und - Ernst für sich. Ja, es ist seine Mission, zumindest heutzutage, im Menschen den dumpfen trübseligen Ernst, in den ihn eine materialistische Gegenwart verstrickt hält, ein wenig aufzulockern, anzubröckeln.

Von einer Zeit umfangen, die im wesentlichen von Gelehrten ihre Parolen empfängt und demgemäß auf allen Seiten zur Sackgasse verurteilt ist, meint er (i e der gegenwärtige Mensch Anmerkung moi) vor solchen Versen gleichsam aufzuatmen, als in einer Atmosphäre, in der die erdrückende Schwere und Schwerfälligkeit des sogenannten physischen Plans, der heute mit dem ganzen bitteren Ernst einer geist- und gottlos gewordenen Epoche als die alleinige und alleinseligmachende Wirklichkeit dekretiert wird, heiter behoben, durchbrochen, ja mitunter völlig auf den Kopf gestellt zu sein scheint

Christian Morgenstern in Brief Fragmente aus Über die Galgenlieder von Christian Morgenstern

Finally the lyrics of one of the most beautiful Flemish songs ever:

Mia by Gorky or Gorki


When I was hungry, I came to you.
You said: "You may eat if you do the washing up"
 People like you must have a hard time.
Give them a chance before they grow silent/ crazy.

The middle class governs the country
better than ever before.
Mia has seen the light.
She says: "Nobody is lost."

Momentarily we still go ahead
on the bright path, the wrong track
People like me you meet everywhere
on the job market in this valley of tears

Stars may come and stars may go
Only Elvis remains
Mia has never quit
She asks: " Can you still dream?"

The middle class governs the country
better than ever before.
Mia has seen the light.
She says: "Nobody is lost."



Stars may come and stars may go
Only Elvis remains
Mia has never quit
She asks: " Can you still dream?"



Stars may come and stars may go
Only Elvis remains
Mia has never quit
She asks: " Can you still dream?"

Rav Josef weinte* / And the Rabbi Wept

                                                   ...  But , alack,
You snatch some hence for little faults; that's love,
To have them fall no more: you some permit
To second ills with ills, each elder worse,
And make them dread it, to the doer's thrift

* cf Emmanuel Levinas, Die Schäden, die das Feuer verursacht in Vom Sakralen zum Heiligen, Fünf neue Talmud-Lesungen

Sanftmut - Gentleness - Lightness

In his series of lectures at the Havard University about issues most likely to become prominent in the third millenium (which he was spitefully denied to fully accomplish),  Italo Calvino talks about Lightness as being one of these issues/ memos, dedicating a whole lecture to it. He goes to point out how already at the end of the twentieth century airiness and volatileness have become important to some artists - for further reading Calvino's lectures have been published entitled Six Memos For The Next Millenium.

Of late I've been reminded of this lecture after watching a new film version of  Das blaue Licht / The Blue Light / Het blauwe licht , which rather stresses the gentle and dreamlike light aspects of this story even converting some of its elements to better fit this issue. Lightness and gentleness, especially when it also applied to environmental issues, which are very important to Calvino as well, go very well together. Thus this adaption proved to be very up to date.

 

The circle closes again when one realises that Calvino has also published a most delightful compilation of fairy tales.

C'est Belge or Surreal Circumstances

In addition to yesterday's post and especially to the family celebration in Belgium. It was during this celebration on a Sunday afternoon in spring that I noticed a helicopter flying very low above the garden we were celebrating in, one could almost distinguish the pilot. In the evening we learned from the news that prisoners had escaped that very afternoon from a nearby prison by kidnapping a helicopter. This stunt was repeated btw a few years later in Belgium ...

Lotharingien or "Wo verläuft die Bildungsgrenze in Deutschland?" :-)

Now Belgium has set the world record of being without a government, maybe it is about time to start considering alternatives...

Once while riding from Münster to Düsseldorf I put forward a question to Raimund Stecker, that an acquaitance had made up during a game of Trivial Pursuit. So in jest I asked Raimund: "Wo verläuft die Bildungsgrenze in Deutschland?" (Where is the borderline of learning in Germany situated?) and I also gave the alleged answer : "Linksrheinisch" (left the river Rhine). Though to me this was only a silly joke, Raimund took this seriously and stated that  he considered people living left the Rhine being far better educated than in the rest of Germany and he added that he even had a girlfriend from Aachen once.

Going back in history, there appears a country, a dream on the map, Lotharingien, the realm of Emperor Lothar/ Lothair, the land inbetween rivers Rhine and Maas, neither French nor German, but rather both. And what a surprise that once while watching TV I learned that Sebastian Haffner had been sharing the same dream, when he was considering post-war Germany after and during WW2.

Btw once there was also the question was raised what language there was spoken in Belgium. Before I could utter any word, a woman, whom I knew for a frequent visitor to Aachen, said: "Belgian." LOL!! How wonderful it is to sit at a table during a family celebration near Eupen in Belgium, and everybody is speaking his respective language, i e  French, German and Flemish/Dutch, and everybody is understanding everybody...

Wisdom from Books

I wonder who this "mein lieber Hans-Günther" is or was, who got twenty years of age in December 1943 and whose Aunt Kläre was living in Kiel, for this is the dedication I found in a copy of "König Heinrich IV.- Erster Teil" ( King Henry IV - Part I). In fact I'm wishing him good luck still for the years of his life he had yet to come, for there were also parts of the text marked and it was mainly those parts, where Falstaff would be commenting on his view of honour - a highly dangerous view to hold in Germany at the time -, but also one that eventually would have helped this Hans-Günther to survive (if he had managed to keep it to himself).