Nach "Kunst", "AÏRA" und "1956" ist "fireflag" das vierte Fahnenobjekt aus "flags process(ion sculpture)". "fireflag" ist das Nervensystem und das Phänomen der Gefühlserbschaft, die das Nervensystem wie eine Flamme in sich trägt. Mit "fireflag" bin ich unangekündigt in der Stadt unterwegs. In der Performance an der Finissage von "flags labor 1" kam "fireflag" zum ersten Mal "offiziell" zum Einsatz. Es gesellten sich die "flamepods" dazu und aus dieser Performance ist "Dreamtimespace" entstanden zuerst auf der Wiese und dann als Winter-Installation, die auch im Innenraum als Performance zustande kam.
Die Winter-Installation in der Aquarium-Galerie ist ein angehaltener Moment dieses dynamischen Prozesses - eine Prozess-Installation. Weitere Dreamtimespaces entstehen und vergehen als Performances mit temporärer Installation im öffentlichen Raum. Dies als erste Skizzen von Presence City.
Remark
Dreamtimespace entsteht durch das Positionieren von fireflag und horizontal flame und das Positionieren und Throwing der flamepods.
Dreamtimespace ist drinnen und draussen. Die Installation im Innenraum ist so gemacht, dass sie von aussen betrachtet werden soll.
Wenn ich nun auch draussen flamepods aufstelle, die sich spiegeln in der Glaswand der Aquarium Galerie, so überlagern sich die Spiegelung der flamepods draussen mit den flamepods drinnen.
Und gleichzeitig entstehen kurzfristige Dreamtimespaces als Performances im öffentlichen Raum.
Fotoliste Dreamtimespace ( 53 Fotos, 2 Videos „Positioning“ und „Throwing )
1 Erste Dreamtimespace auf der Wiese
2 Dragon
3 Transporting bamboo poles
4 Transporting fireflag
5 putting up fireflag
6 adjusting fireflag
7 position
8 stability
9 standing freely
10 Dreamtimespace
11 fireflag
12 Dreamtimespace
13 Dragon sign board
14 Dreamtimespace
15 Throwing
16 Throwing
17 Reflection
18 Fireflag horizontal flame reflection
19 Reflection
20 Reflection
21 Reflection
22 Reflection
23 Inspection
24 Inspection
25 Visitor
26 Red Horizontal flame reflection as canvas
27 Artist reflection
28 Reflection om ceiling and into other space
29 Posture
30 Posture
31 Throwing
32 Circling
33 Positioning
34 Doubling
35 Poles reflecting overlapping
36 Shape
37 Lower end
38 Connection doubling
39 Poles
40 Merging
41 Double visitors
42 Double visitors
43 Nina
44 Voco
45 Dreamtimespace
46 Mirroring
47 Mirroring
48 Mirroring
49 Flamepods outside
50 Row of real and mirrored
51 Drawing
52 Hanging
53 Flag
humans can’t flow like water and fly like birds but they can wave and throw - waving and launching imitate flowing and flying
Dreamtimespace by Gabriel Magos Zürich, Dec. 2021
In the Intro(1) I explain why my goal is to understand consciousness and that my focus is on the nerves. Then I present the installation «Dreamtimespace» (2) with fireflag (3), flamepods (4) – throwing (5) - and horizontal flame (6). A brief presentation of my long-time project «flags» follows (7), what connection I see between consciousness, nerves, transference and flags (8), how teaching, exercises and training is in this project (9), practice (10) and the interactive, participative »your flamepods» (11).
1 Intro
Basically there are two attempts at trying to save civilisation from self-extinction : A technical attempt and an emotional attempt. Elon Musk wants to colonize Mars and save humanity from there. I want to understand consciousness.
It is all about dedication, belief and play. You only go for a seemingly impossible task with dedication, belief and playfullness.
Now what about people who go for such tasks out of desperation and hate ? Well – that is why I am launching «flags» to understand consciousness rather than launching rockets to colonize Mars. Without «gnothi sauton» ( know yourself) we wouldn’t be at a point where Elon can build his spaceships instead of being bombed back into a cave.
My attempt to understand consciousness grounds on the fact that consciousness is linked to matter – that is to the nervous system and the brain.
I want to understand the nervous system. That is: The nervous system wants to understand itself. I not only want to understand the nervous system – I have to. My own nervous system can freak out since my early childhood.
If I see civilisation as an organism with innervation how is the revering invoking taming healing of the nervous system that carries emotional heritage ruling civilisation like a flame within look like ?
I put up fireflag representing this nervous system like a puppet player trying to direct the own lower part surrounded by a horizontal flame representing flag as the object embodying the concept of direction and flamepods representing the wounds created by the play of forces.
As civilisation unfolds along the tension between our softness and the hardness around us this performative installation called «Dreamtimespace» happens indoor and outdoor.
Because «Dreamtimespace» is about the nervous system that is in the body directing the body, all the parts of this installation and the performative aspect of it refer directly to the body and its movement.
2 Dreamtimespace
As scientists, politicians, religious/ideological leaders and businesspeople have tremendous knowledge money and power but opposing positions, I as artist have something they dont have. There is no name for it. It is my duty and dedication to try to communicate «it ». « Dreamtimespace » is installation, performance, text, exchange, meditation, adventure, encounter, interaction, training and practical application. It is the actual manifestation of my long-term project « flags ».
The installation can be seen and experienced from Oct. 20, 2021 until early spring 2022 in Aquarium Galerie Max Frisch Kunstbad Zürich Switzerland. Simultaneous performances, lectures and more happen in public space and venues. Next dates are Jan. 5 (Interview Performance Research Project in Basel) and Jan. 13 (Artist Talk in Raum für Kunst und Philosophie Zürich). «flags» project is on the radar of some museums. Details in spring 2022.
« Dreamtimespace » as installation is a model of consciousness as magic forest of reality and dream. It is on the ground, standing freely, at the wall and up in the air. It is very red and light. It consists of cheap fleece-redcarpets, bamboosticks, tape, some cloth, strings and wooden clips. It has three parts : fireflag, flamepods and horizontal flame.
It may appear in public space as whole or just one of the three parts. So there are informal performances happening in public space with redcarpet or fireflag or flamepods or a combination of these.
3 fireflag
fireflag is one of 28 flagpods of the « flags proces(sion) sculpture ».
There is a bamboo-tripod about 2,5 meters high, in its top a red piece of cloth is hanging. The lower two ends of this cloth are splayed by a horizontal bamboo stick, thus forming a kind of signal window. At this bamboo stick a bigger piece of red cloth is attached with strings, hanging down and just about touching the ground.
This hanging construction is like a threefold shape that seems to be alive when the three parts are moving offset to one another in the draft or wind.
It could be a puppeteer guiding its own lower part. Like our nervous system that we are ourselves and which guides us at the same time.
The nervous system carries the emotional heritage like a flame within. I consider it to be my task to create a model on which the mechanisms of transference can be approached in a healing way instead of being instrumentalized in a manipulating way.
„fireflag“ represents this flame. „The nervous system guides by image processing“ shows itself in the construction of fireflag as model of how the physical forces determine the psychic and emotional forces.
„fireflag“ gives the emotional heritage a shape according to the origin of the flag as messenger runner herald courier indicator of the wind, connection to the universe and waveform of life.
The parts, connections and materials of this fragile construction are simple, elaborate handwork. They disclose the play of the forces fragility, stability and im/balance.
The simple, «poor» form is chosen to enable a non-instrumentalised view of these forces. Thus being a refusal of power. Because diversity – the connection of different parts – which for uprightness, for standing – exemplarily represented by the bamboo-tripod – is essential – and ground and space, on and in which standing is happening - belong to all humans equally and are existentially basic for all humans equally
4 flamepods
A flamepod is a redcarpet-bundle thrown upon a bamboo tripod and then unfolding. It is an instant kinetic sculpture.
Flamepod might change its shape thru vibration of the ground or draft or wind. Since it is very light, labile and not fixed to the ground, it also can fall easily.
Outdoor this happens quickly and is part of the performance. The outdoor version of flamepod exists for the length of the performance only and on photo/video.
Indoor as part of Dreamtimespace it can stay constant when it is apart from the public (as it is now in Aquarium Galerie Max Frisch Kunstbad Zürich Oct. 2021 - spring 2022 – with parallel outdoor flamepod performances in public spaces).
In an exhibition indoor it might also change due to vibrations of the ground, draft of people walking around or even temperature fluctuations. In this case there will be a new Throwing by the artist. Throwing by public instructed by the artist see point 11. Throwing is a registered trademark of Gabriel Magos.
Flamepod represents the wounds created by the play of forces. Dreamflag. Timeflag. Spaceflag. Dreamtimespace is the place of forces where chance is playing. So it is like a flame. Dreamland burns with the fire of emotional heritage.
5 Throwing
Throwing is: To throw the 1x15 meters vlees redcarpet-bundle onto the bamboo tripod so it stays atop and unfolds. How the cloth gets stuck and how it is unfolding by itself , creates the sculpture. So it’s not Drip Painting (originally Max Ernst Der verwirrte Planet 1942 – then Jackson Pollock), not Schüttbild (Hermann Nitsch), not Shoot (Chris Burden 1971), not Shooting Painting ( Niki de Saint Phalle 1961), but Throwing.
Automatic movement and invocation leads to an installation in movement. The movement of the throwing is in the sculpture. The flag is flying in the wind. The thrown cloth is flying.
“ The overhand throwing motion is a complex motor skill that involves the entire body in a series of linked movements starting from the legs, progressing up through the pelvis and trunk, and culminating in a ballistic motion in the arm that propels a projectile forward. It is used almost exclusively in athletic events. The throwing motion can be broken down into three basic steps: cocking, accelerating, and releasing.
Desired qualities in the action produce a fast, accurate throw. These qualities are affected by the physical attributes of the thrower like height, strength, and flexibility. However it is mainly the throwing motion mechanics and the thrower's ability to coordinate them that determines the quality of the throw. Determining the desired qualities of the throwing motion is difficult to assess due to the extremely short amount of time that it takes professionals to perform the motion. “ (Wikipedia)
6 horizontal flame
A fleece redcarpet horizontally taped to the wall
Like a flame like a flag like a panorama
the flag is
a) originating as indicator of the wind that brings wind that rules life («born from the wind»)
b) and thus the connection between individual and universe, between the basic and fragile unit of civilisation and society on one side and the biggest and strongest allmighty power on the other side
c) the representation of the waveform of life as seen in the movement of sexuality and the elements air, water, fire and earth
death strip - shame line – red carpet – eros flow
like a horizontal flame
Like a horizontal flame
horizontal flame
S N A K E
7 flags
First mankind sat before the fire and heard the sounds of the fire.
First mankind saw birds flying and saw leaves moving on branches and saw changing weathers and felt something on the skin and combined that there must be something invisible. To share these experiences mankind started to imitate the sound of the fire, invented language and called this invisible «air».
Next combination was that this «air» not only moves by itself, but is moving and carrying objects. Thus the concept of «wind » came about.
Because weather dominates life and thus there is an existential need to know where the wind comes from, mankind invented flags. So flag is about direction.
The flag is flying in the wind seemingly moving automatically – that is by itself. But it is the wind that moves the flag, that makes it fly. Even though we know this there is an archaic hormonal imprint in us that makes the fascination of the flag. We feel the flag akin of us. It is moved. The flag has leading and seducing quality. And it becomes by its movement a strong surface of information. And from there the strongest indicating, marking, directing, warning, communication symbol, signal of position, of property, of nation, of power.
The flag is the first moving information/identity carrier and thus precursor of digital information. The screen is moving information. Information is invocation. Movement and invocation are the keywords. In the concept «world wide whiteflagging» I write more about this connection.
8 consciousness, nerves, transference, flags
Consciousness is what lets me write these lines. Consciousness is what makes me tape a redcarpet on the wall and makes me claim it is flame a wave a flag a panorama – as expression of what I call the firing of the nerves. I think human consciousness these days is in a constant state of alert frenzy because it is challenged and threatened by AI.
Transference of emotional heritage is the driving force of civilisation. The joy of having survived a winter in the cave thanks to an animal fur was passed on, but also the anger of having that fur being stolen. There was a point in the seventies/eighties when a feeling of losening of the grip of emotional heritage was rising. But when I worked in Budapest 1993/94 I could already sense the shadows of the past growing again. And now these shadows have arrived at my doorsteps.
Transference is the firing of the nerves and it is crucial to perceive the direction the flames go. As the flag shows the direction of the wind, my «flags» objects, installations, performances, lectures, discussions, trainings and more try to perceive the nature and direction of what I call the horizontal flames – a term by the way used in fire prevention, which was the background of B.L. Whorf (« Language, Thought, and Reality »).
9 teachings, exercises, training
Flammability is how fast fire is happening. This is a danger. But it is also a way of looking at sensibility. It is an ability. All my teaching, exercises and trainings – as all of my art – well, all of my life - deal with flammability.
There was an incident in 1944, when my grandmother, my mother and my sister ( I was born 9 years later) stood by the banks of the Danube in Budapest, to get shot into the river as Jews. The man behind the makeshift desk to make the lists – how crazy is that - was really crazy. He was a former patient of my grandmother who was the director of the national nerve clinic Lipotmezö. In a second of – well, of what exactly ? – he recognised her and he had the tree women sent home. That’s why I am existing.
There was a second incident. My mother was fleeing with her three children from Hungary in november 1956. I was three and a half and scared to death. My mother had to tell me a never ending story as we crossed the death strip of the iron curtain because I was screaming non-stop.
There is a third incident now. My daughter of 18 is in psychiatric stationary treatment because of panic attacks and dissoziations.
Flammability. They say that I have a high sensibility and my daughter was so sensible from the start that we had to protect her. She had affective spasms at a very early age. Plus I can be irascible.
How do I deal with all this ? Art and therapy. I have a lifelong record of heavy facial pain and have gone thru numerous therapies – including 10 years of behavioral therapy. And I have a lifelong record of transforming my woundedness into art and teaching, including 20 years of theatre pedagogy, including «storyschool» with my wife Corinne Tache in the fields of sexual pedagogy and violence and burn out prevention - since 2009 as the teaching assignment «Situatives Arbeiten» at the Höhere Fachschule für Sozialpädagogik Luzern.
What can I offer ? or: WHERE can I offer ? From working in theatres, music venues, schools and art spaces I have come to the conclusion, that conveying sharing teaching must happen in public space too. It is in public space that there is the chance to reach those who really need it – poor and rich - and there is the chance that sharing really happens because not planned. At least half of life is unplannable.
Plus the combination of outdoor and indoor widens perception in such a way that we might get into the doors of perception – «there is a known world and an unknown world and doors inbetween»(A. Huxley) - as I was as a boy of three and a half on the streets of Vienna: «Freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose.“
Exposition is a much wider term than it is used. Exposition is always transference. And determined by movement and invocation. See also «GCAS podcast 25» minute 52 and on. In this podcast it is laid out what my teaching is about.
10 Practice
Positionist practice is going into space as void and abundance. In constant contact to space and at the same time trying to surrender to our unability to understand space.
This is like a very tough practical zen meditation, going thru the routine of life yet never knowing what comes next. Or with other words : You do what you are doing knowing that it could be completely different the very next second.
Is this freaking you ? Now you have felt the suspense we are always in called life.
(www – world wide whiteflagging - walking forward going back )
11 your flamepods
There are bamboo-tripods and redcarpets. I will help you to go into the state of body and mind (the breathing !) you need to throw the redcarpet-bundle onto the top of the tripod – there are small ones also for children – in a focused way so your flagpod is not mere chance but also an act of creation.