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--- shrines_house_spirit [2021-02-23 10:40] – rasa
+++ shrines_house_spirit [2021-06-14 12:02] – rasa
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-<blockquote> The magicians work incessantly, even when they are relaxing. This is indeed very nearly the simple truth. Brothers Strugatsky </blockquote>
+<blockquote><fs x-large>The magicians work incessantly, even when they are relaxing. This is indeed very nearly the simple truth. Brothers Strugatsky</fs>
+</blockquote>
 <fs large>Shrines are places or containers of spiritual presence. One of the main features of spirituality is that its objects do not "exist" in the ordinary sense of the word. Deity, spirit, soul, ghost and other familiar categories of believes lie outside the realms of everyday objects in time and space. However, human beings across multiple cultures experience the presence of these creatures in relation to material objects. Much of the purpose of shrines is to provide habitat for sacred presences within the everyday life. Shrines may be seen as sites of spiritual realities, places where meanings take on specific, tangible, and tactile presence.
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+<fs large>Spirituality is not necessarily linked to a specific religion. Ancient tribes and “primitives” had their own believes that helped to explain their surroundings and make sense of being. Godly beings, spirits, deities and other creatures had place in their lives and accompanied them in joys and sorrows. Some of these believes grew into or got picked up by larger religions, others stayed on the level of tales and myths. In any case these stories thought respect to everyone and everything around and acknowledged deeper powers of belonging in this world and beyond.
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+<fs large>Now, when more and more people don’t find their ways to the churches because of rigid old-fashioned doctrines or disputable history’s, many still seek the spiritual fulfilment elsewhere. It happens by joining various therapeutic sessions such as mindfulness, yoga, ritualistic retreats or by attending events in theaters and museums that engage and talk about the humanity and purpose in life. This trend only shows the importance of having time and places to express and experience something else than just daily activities. Such spirituality is vital to us as community and individuals.
+</fs>
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+<fs large>Different religions accentuate that you don’t get to paradise without suffering. Or, you have to behave according to certain rules and forget about yourself, to be rewarded later. But when is that later? This doctrine is deeply imbedded in our lives as if it is carved in our bones. We are so preoccupied with all those amazing things that will happen after... you’ll graduate, you’ll build the house or earn lots of money, you’ll get kids or kids will leave the house or … you die?...We wait for the weekend to do fun stuff, we book expensive holidays with expectation to be happy then. We plan and plan and plan and live in the state of constant expectation that those short moments of relief will make us happy and reward us for all tiredness, misery, hardness we experience now. Just like now we are waiting for covid restrictions to be lifted with an idea that then we will live again. But what about Now? Can we be happy now even if the times or circumstances are not perfect?</fs>
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+<fs large>**Why Shrine?**
+There is something attractively collective and democratic about public shrines. There is no one author of it. Only the initial form and invitation for action can be created by one person. What happens after is beyond control. Informal participation of passersby creates everchanging visual aesthetics and energetical charge. Respect for what is already there and negotiation where your contribution finds its place creates dialog. The constant accumulation of various objects adds strength and intensity to the experience. You are not alone yet your thought and action are as important as any other, represented in the shrine.
+</fs>
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+<fs large>** A Shrine for Now** (working title)
+Since very short I am a volunteer at a retirement home for people with dementia. There is a closed ward for patients with most advanced stage of this illness. Spending time there is touching, emotional and confronting. Will my parents end up like that? My friends? Myself? Being among these people is also very interesting and inspiring. As if humanity gets peeled off to its core. Only very basic mechanical actions are possible, only very basic true emotions. Some patients light up by hearing their name or a sentence in their mother tongue, others burst in tears from recognising their favourite melody or a face in the picture on the wall. All of them live in that one exact moment, the moment when the mind is still capable to make sense of what’s around them. Moment of epiphany. And then they sink back into the unknown. In this ward there is very little of yesterday and there is no tomorrow. If you can enjoy beauty, warmth, touch and happiness you have to enjoy it now. Because Now it’s all there is.
+</fs>
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+<fs large>With my work **Shrine for Now** I would like to create an awareness of magic, beauty, weirdness, humor, happiness… that is all around us here and now. And, by doing that put sites, places, visual marks and living characters seen and found in and around Zwalm in focus. I’d like to bring to attention the small, at first glance common and insignificant “treasures” that are filled with preciousness, beauty or weirdness. Because each step we take we can see something special or something that deserves our appreciation.
+I would like to invite to take a moment and think of Now. What is there around you? Do the traces, stories, images and symbolic representations of my encounters with Zwalm inspire or question your state of being? Is there something that bothers you or makes you smile? What thoughts deserves your time and attention? Is there something you want to tell your partner, friend, child, parent but are waiting for the right moment? Perhaps that time is Now? As for Now is the best time there is.
+</fs>
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+<fs large>**How to Shrine?**
+A large, old, wooden wardrobe is installed in a young forest behind the villa “Vrede”. It serves as the casing for the shrine. The inside panels of the wardrobe are created by stone printing the graveyards, brick walls and other surfaces in the surroundings of Zwalm. The words and patterns from the stones are applied on a big canvas and placed inside of the wardrobe to create a clear environment for the shrine to be. From the random conversations with local people important keywords about their experience of happiness, joy, fun and good times are written (or printed) on the tracing paper and layered on top of the canvas. Pictures, donated magazine or newspaper snippets fill the empty gaps to create visual accents of the total image. Discarded broken objects gets collected and transformed into a number of small figurines as a symbolic representation of different characters and experiences. These hangs or are placed in the wardrobe accumulating volume and forming a sense of mystery. There are QR codes displayed among the images and objects linking to the pictures and the stories of the exact locations in Zwalm. In the drawers of the cupboard more of the broken/found objects and material is stored. During the festival people are invited to create their own little figurines, write down own words or make other kind of contribution to be placed into the **Shrine for Now**. This way the shrine will grow and carry all those important emotions to be shared with everyone.
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 <fs x-large>**Different aspects of shrines:**</fs>
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 <fs large> **-Presence of body parts in a shrine as an association with the physical remains of spiritual creature.**
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 As an example: The bones and teeth of the body of the Buddha that remained after his cremation have become objects of great veneration because they enable the devotee to link the meaning of the Buddha's message with the trace of his physical presence in the world. Also, it is understood to be magnets for transformative power from which you may charge up for various life-enhancing purposes such as health, wealth, and success in the ordinary world.</fs>
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 <fs large>** -Shrines at intersection of nature and culture.**
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  {{:telefonu-medis-21-medium.jpg|}}
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 <fs large>** - Shrines as a trajectory for movement.**
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 {{ :street-shrine-tai-ping-shan-street-hong-kong-translation-text-reads-doorway-to-earth-god-god-55978075.jpeg?600 |}}
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 <fs large>** -Street shrines as artefacts of visual culture.**
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