«The man who is right is the one who feels but does not understand.»
– Nijinsky, Diary
«Somebody dances for you; maybe you can enjoy it, but how can you know the beauty of dance unless you dance? It is something inner. What happens when a person is dancing? What happens to his innermost core?
Nijinsky, one of the greatest dancers, used to say that there come moments when he disappears, only the dance remains. Those are the peak moments — when the dancer is not there and only the dance is. (…)
Now Nijinsky is moving into an ecstasy, and you are just sitting there watching the movement. Of course those movements are beautiful. Nijinsky’s movements have a grace, a tremendous beauty, but it is nothing compared to what he is feeling inside. His dance is a beauty, even when you are just a spectator, but nothing compared to what is happening inside him.
He used to say that there are moments when gravitation disappears. (…)
Even scientists were very much puzzled, because there were moments in Nijinsky’s dance when he would leap and jump – and those leaps were tremendous, almost impossible leaps. A man cannot leap that way; the gravitation does not allow. And the most beautiful and amazing part was that when Nijinsky would be coming back from the leap he would come so slowly that it is impossible. He would come so slowly as if a leaf is falling from a tree… very slowly, very slowly, very slowly.
It is not possible, it is against the physical law, it is against physics. The gravitation does not make any exceptions, not even for a Nijinsky. And he was asked again and again, ‘What happens? How do you fall so slowly? Because it is not within your power to control — the gravitation pulls you.’ He said, ‘It does not happen always, only rarely – when the dancer disappears. Then sometimes I am also puzzled, surprised, not only you. I see myself coming so slowly, so gracefully, and I know that the gravitation does not exist in that moment.’
He must be functioning in another dimension where the physical law does not exist, where another law starts working that spiritualists call the law of levitation. And it seems absolutely rational and logical to have both the laws, because each law has to be counterbalanced by another law in the opposite direction. If there is light there is darkness, if there is life there is death, if there is gravitation there must be levitation that pulls you up. There must be ways where a person is pulled up.»
- Osho about Ninjinsky, “The Discipline of Transcendence”, Vol. 2
«Le noir est la couleur la plus essentielle. […]. Il faut respecter le noir. Rien ne le prostitue. Il ne plaît pas aux yeux et n’éveille aucune sensualité. Il est agent de l’esprit bien plus que la belle couleur de la palette ou du prisme.»
«From around the age of six I have been mad about sketching the forms of life.
By the time I was fifty, I had published a lot of drawings,
but until the age of seventy, nothing that I drew was worthy of attention.
At the age of seventy-three, I began to grasp the real structures of birds, animals, insects and fish, and of the way plants grow.
If I go on trying, at eighty I hope to have apprehended them still better,
and at ninety I shall have penetrated to their true nature,
so that at one hundred years I will have achieved a truly marvelous understanding of them,
and at one hundred and more, I will have reached the stage where every dot and every stroke I paint will be alive.
May Heaven, that grants long life, give the chance to prove the truth of my words.»
- Hokusai, autobiographical postscript to One Hundred Views of Mount Fuji, written in 1835, at age 75. Constantly seeking to produce better work, he apparently exclaimed on his deathbed: “If only Heaven will give me just another ten years… just another five more years, then I could become a real painter”. Hokusai died on May 10, 1849.
«Mas esse algo é também a fonte ou o fólego que os fazem viver através das doenças do vivido (o que Nietzsche chama de saúde). “Um dia saberemos talvez que não havia arte, mas somente medicina.”»
- Deleuze, OQF
«Ex his clare intelligimus, qua in re nostra salus seu beatitudo seu libertas consistit, nempe in constanti et aeterno erga Deum amore, sive in amore Dei erga homines. Atque hic amor, seu beatitudo in sacris codicibus gloria appellatur *); nec immerito. Nam sive hic amor ad Deum referatur sive ad mentem, recte animi acquiescentia, quae revera a gloria (per aff. defin. 25 et 30) non distinguitur, appellari potest.»
[Por isto é claro entendermos em que coisa consiste a nossa salvação, beatitude ou liberdade, ou seja, num constante e eterno amor em direcção a Deus, ou no amor de Deus em direcção aos homens. E este amor ou beatitude nos livros sagrados chama-se glória, não sem mérito. Pois, quer este amor se refira a Deus, quer à mente, pode chamar-se correctamente "aquiescência da alma", o que, na realidade, não se
distingue da glória (pelas def. 25 e 30 de af.).]
- Spinoza, Ethica, Pars V, Prop. 36, Scholium.
«Les personnages de Cézanne, tout comme les plus belles statues de l’antiquité, ne regardent pas. Les miens, au contraire, regardent. Ils voient même si j’ai choisi de ne pas dessiner les pupilles; mais, comme les personnages de Cézanne, ils ne veulent pas exprimer autre chose qu’une muette acceptation de la vie.»
- Modigliani disait à Soutine.
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«The satisfaction of the creative impulse is a basic, biological need, essential to the health of the individual. Its aggregate effect on the health of society is inestimable.»
«”Here, says the painter, is of what my world is composed: a quantity of sky, a quantity of earth, and a quantity of animation.»
«The teacher [is] a co-creator».
«I adhere to the reality of things and their substance. (…) I quarrel with surrealist and abstract art only as one quarrels with his father and mother, recognizing the inevitability and function of my roots, and insistent upon my dissensions, I am both them and a new integral completely independent of them.»
«…The Birth of Tragedy of Nietzsche. It left an indelible impression on my mind and has forever colored the syntax of my own reflections in the questions of art.» – in Writings, p.109, c. 1954.
«I paint very large pictures. I realize that historically the function of painting large pictures is painting something very grandiose and pompous. The reason paint them however, – I think it applies to other painters I know -, is precisely because I want to be very intimate and human. To paint a small picture is to place yourself outside your experience, to look upon an experience as a stereopticon view or with a reducing glass. However you paint the lager picture, you are in it. It isn’t something you command.» – Interiors, vol. 110, no 10, May 1951; as quoted in Abstract Expressionism Creators and Critics, edited by Clifford Ross, Abrams Publishers New York 1990, p. 172.
«I am not an abstractionist. … I am not interested in the relationship of colour or form or anything else. … I’m interested only in expressing basic human emotions — tragedy, ecstasy, doom and so on — and the fact that a lot of people break down and cry when confronted with my pictures show that I communicate those basic human emotions. … The people who weep before my pictures are having the same religious experience I had when I painted them. And if you, as you say, are moved only by their color relationships, then you miss the point!» – Conversations with Artists (1957) by Selden Rodman; later published in “Notes from a conversation with Selden Rodman, 1956″ in Writings on Art : Mark Rothko (2006) edited by Miguel López-Remiro.
«A painting is not about an experience. It is an experience.» – quoted in “Mark Rothko” by Dorothy Seiberling in LIFE magazine (16 November 1959), p. 52.
Entr’acte (1924) is René Clair’s Dada-influenced 20-minute short, commissioned for the interval of Francis Picabia’s new ballet, Relâche, in Paris in 1924. The original music for the film was composed by the famous composer Erik Satie, who makes a cameo appearance along side surrealist photographer Man Ray.
In the Exhibition Hall of the Museum of Chinese History in Beijing, there is a restored model of the first seismoscope.
The inventor was Zhang Heng, a famous scientist in the Eastern Han Dynasty (25-220 AD). Zhang Heng (78-140 AD) was from Nanyang of Henan Province. He studied diligently, and was especially fond of astronomy, calendar and mathematics.
In 132 AD, in the then national capital of Luoyang, Zhang Heng made the ancient seismograph to determine the direction of an earthquake. It was made of fine copper, and looked like a cylindrical jar with eight dragonheads (which pointed in eight directions – east, south, west, north, southeast, northeast, southwest, and northwest) arranged around its brim, and each dragon had a copper ball in the mouth. Around the foot of the jar were eight frogs, each directly under a dragonhead. The inner side of the seismograph was ingeniously constructed: when an earthquake occurred, the dragon facing that direction would drop the ball from its mouth into the frog’s mouth, automatically indicating the direction of the earthquake.
One day in 138 AD, the dragon in the west expelled its ball. As expected, an earthquake had occurred that day in Longxi (present-day Western Gansu Province) a thousand kilometers away. It was the first time that mankind had used an instrument to detect an earthquake. It was over 1,700 years later that a similar instrument was invented in Europe.
“Inflation”, made by Hans Richter in Germany (1928).
(In January, 1921, there were 64 marks to the dollar. By November, 1923 this had changed to 4,200,000,000,000 marks to the dollar.)
The Federal Reserve, isn’t a Federal institution (its a collection of private ‘Reserve’ banks) and does not back the dollar with anything of ‘value’; i.e.”Reserves”.
“Where Good Ideas Come From” (2010) by Steven Johnson
This book adduces seven recurring patterns that occur in innovative environments and enable creativity:
1) The adjacent possible: the inventor must use the components that exist in his environment. Gutenberg used a wine press for his printing press.
2) Liquid networks (collision, friction and collaboration): large cities, the coffee-house in the Age of the Enlightenment, the bohemian salons of Modernism, Internet, social networks… Chance favors the connective mind.
3) The slow hunch (time of incubation): it can take years for a hunch to blossom into a full-blown invention.
4) Serendipity (Eureka!)
5) Error: this can also be a creative force. Lee de Forest’s development of the audion diode and the triode was the result of erroneous thinking, and de Forest never understood how they worked.
6) Exaptation: vacuum tubes were developed for long-distance telephone networks and radio transmission and were later used for electronic computers.
7) Platforms: emergent platforms foster continual balancing between competitive and cooperative impulses. The competition keeps each organism from over-replicating and overrunning the platform space. The cooperation creates ways to recycle, conserve and thrive together with only scarce resources. The complex web of interdependencies results in lots of cross-fertilzation between solutions and innovative uses for cast off by-products. Together, the vitality thriving on or in the platform becomes very resilient and sustainable. The platform creators cannot go solo to get their job done. Coral needs algae to fuel their endeavors. Once a platform emerges, a staggering volume of biodiversity joins the party. The quantity and quality of innovations, adaptations, co-optations and reciprocities are an inspiration to us.
Entre 1770 et 1773, après la disparition de sa jeune épouse et de sa fille, Pierre Jaquet-Droz, suisse et pendulier de son état, se constitua une «Petite famille mécanique».
Digne successeur du célèbre Vaucanson, il créa avec son fils Henri-Louis et Jean-Frédéric Leschot, des androïdes perfectionnés aux fonctions bien réelles dont la taille, la figure et les mouvements imitaient étroitement la nature.
La naissance de ces automates écrivain, dessinateur et musicien illustra une étape de la recherche médicale, celle de la fabrication d’organes artificiels et de prothèses mécaniques permettant de remplacer avantageusement les membres disparus. Tout comme Vaucanson, le but des Jaquet-Droz nétait pas uniquement de divertir le public mais plutôt de linstruire et de faire progresser la science.
Ce documentaire est une invitation au voyage, un voyage à travers le temps où les créatures les plus extraordinaires se côtoient : automates de Vaucanson, joueur déchecs du Baron Von Kempelen, têtes parlantes de lAbbé Mical, magiciens et devins des frères Maillardet.
J’avais parlé de cruautés réelles sur le plan du diapason,
j’avais parlé de cruautés manuelles sur le plan de l’attitude action,
j’avais parlé de guerre moléculaire d’atomes, chevaux de frise sur tous les fronts, je veux dire
gouttes de sueur sur la front,
j’ai été mis en asile d’aliénés
- Antonin Artaud, Le théâtre et l’anatomie, (1946), in Œuvres, p. 1093.
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Je hais et abjecte en lâche toute sensation et tout être.
Je hais et abjecte en lâche toutes les sensations de l’être.
Je hais et abjecte en lâche toute sensation qui ne conduirait pas à se mettre à la porte de
l’être,
à mettre l’être à la porte d’une monde qui n’est pas encore commencé,
et qui après quelques semaines de vide a la prétention de se croire mort.
Nous ne sommes pas encore nés,
nous ne sommes pas encore au monde,
il n’y a pas encore de monde,
les choses ne sont pas encore faites,
la raison d’être n’est pas trouvée,
la seule question est d’avoir un corps,
d’avoir avec soi assez de corps pour passer intact, intouchable, misérable et vierge à
travers toutes les saletés sexuelles de l’enfer.
- Antonin Artaud, Paris-Varsovie, extrait du cahier 370 (1947, publié dans la revue 84 n°3-4 en 1948), in
Œuvres, p. 1580
«Nem se pode fixar um primado de conteúdo como determinante, nem um primado da expressão como significante.»
- Deleuze & Guattari, “Mille Plateaux”
«Pormenor técnico
4 contentores de carga marítima
Comprimento: 12 metros
Cor: cinzento»
- Dossier de imprensa “Contentores”
Seria necessário desestratificar e omitir, como em baixo, todas as ESPECIFICAÇÕES relativas ao “happening” para não defraudar a finalidade da obra – e, sobretudo, nada de fotografias, de ASSOCIAÇÕES com vulgares imagens empíricas.
Porque senão, em vez de se pôr em movimento o artista, ler-se-ão nomes de REFERÊNCIA, e ao invés de se renovar o conceito de ”Contentores”, haverá REIFICAÇÃO, reduzindo-o à designação de um objecto conhecido e circunscrito a um local específico. Toda a aventura do sentido se perde, restando o efeito lúdico.
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«O artista (…) já terá chegado a Lisboa. Mas também isso é uma incerteza que pode ou não prolongar-se depois do início da apresentação, pois não está sequer previsto que o público [0/os] veja».
Apenas se verá o que os dois artistas estarão dispostos a revelar, ou seja, para já, que os dois vão fazer uma performance e o resultado será visível no exterior de dois contentores, a partir das 21h desta quinta-feira. O momento marca também a inauguração deste novo e efémero espaço de exposições (…).
Mas estarão os artistas dentro dos contentores? E por quanto tempo? Horas? Dias? Semanas? A pedido dos próprios artistas, essa e outras possíveis interrogações ficam sem resposta. Até o título da performance é uma incógnita. Pelo menos por enquanto.
“É parte da obra não haver esta comunicação”, nem divulgação do que ela é (…).
O que se sabia até há pouco tempo era que, à chegada (…) [o artista] seria fechado e transportado num contentor, onde ficaria por tempo indeterminado. Mas nem isso agora parece confirmar-se.
O que se sabe ao certo é que a dupla começou uma performance (…) com uma conversa via e-mail e telefone».
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«A performance mistério que se inaugura hoje, pelas 21 horas, sob a Ponte 25 de Abril, será a primeira aparição pública [do artista] (…). Está bem enganado, porém, quem julga que vai poder observar directamente este “work in progress”. Os dois protagonistas da performance estarão, por tempo indefinido, encerrados em dois contentores (…). O público, porém, não terá acesso à discussão que os dois artistas, que comunicarão por telemóvel e através da Internet, estarão a desenvolver durante o decorrer desta instalação.
A “conversa” centrar-se-á precisamente na mediação entre o artista e o público pelo próprio recinto, sobre a utilização da linguagem e as repercussões das palavras, sobre a “geometria” particular das frases e das expressões e sobre a veracidade daquilo que é dito, bem como a capacidade da linguagem em tornar-se arte através da sua utilização.
O mistério à volta desta performance é (…) “uma insistência dos criadores”, cuja presença em Portugal (…) estava, até hoje, envolta em dúvida.
“Sabia da sua vinda desde o início do projecto. Para ser sincero, seria absurdo que um dos maiores nomes da arte performativa defraudasse o público dessa maneira.”
Dito isto, importa referir que é notória a insistência [do artista] em evitar qualquer tipo de exposição mediática. De facto, (…) tem a reputação de ser um verdadeiro eremita.
O artista plástico (…) declara que é precisamente a ausência que representa o verdadeiro “triunfo” da [sua] arte (…).
“[O artista] consegue manter uma relação com o público mesmo estando ausente em termos concretos. Tem uma enorme capacidade interventiva” (…).
(…) Adianta, acerca do futuro desta exposição, que está em estudo a sua itinerância sob este formato, tirando partido da facilidade de transporte que os contentores permitem. Absteve-se, porém, devido ao estado embrionário do projecto, de adiantar quaisquer pormenores acerca de eventuais “conversas” futuras».
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«Tell Me My Name é uma performance executada pelo artista em dois contentores de carga marítima. Dela ficarão vestígios materiais e sensoriais, vestígios esses que remetem para questões relacionadas com a sensualidade e a identidade, e ainda para a (in)determinação sexual, que decorre quer do facto de ambos os contentores terem a mesma iluminação, quer da informação presente nos vestígios deixados após a realização da performance».
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«I am inside here. Bruce N[...] is also inside the container underneath. We do not know when we will come out of this room. We both thank all the visitors for coming to the opening.
I will be most of the time talking to Bruce [...]. I communicate with Bruce in the Internet and in the mobile.
Our mobiles will probably be occupied. I have come directly from my home in Lisbon to this place.
Bruce N[...] has also come directly to this place. I will not speak to anyone. Not even to the press because written words in particular can work like a bomb. I love containers. They remind me of my body. Being near the sea is for me like having a fountain nearby.
Bruce will also not speak to anyone either because this is a particular moment for us. He has had a very pleasant flight and an amazing view over the river Tagus.
I want to discuss with Bruce in private if a clown is really laughing when he is laughing and if he is really crying when he is crying.
I also want to talk about the geometry of linguistic statements, words without shadow.
Bruce wants to discuss with me in private the pertinence of the fact that non-native English speaker artists use English language in their linguistic statements as well as the possbility of everyday activities to be made into art (a trace I think we have in common).
We have met by chance.
We are both extremely excited with this idea: a talk in separate containers so that the discussion would not turn too hot. Our point of view may differ though they may also have many things in common.
We would not like you to worry about us because both Bruce and I are very comfortable. We have feather beds, blankets and portable fans. Food, wine and water, too. We also have plenty of space: 12,19×2,35×2,39m. We can walk around and do our own intimate performances in our free time. That is something we share: a great awareness of our body.
We both send you our regards and wish you a pleasant visit.
Tiny apartment transforms into 24 rooms – In Hong Kong, because of the space, apartments are small and expensive. Gary Chang, an architect, decided to design a 344 sq. ft. apartment to be able to change into 24 different designs, all by just sliding panels and walls. He calls this the “Domestic Transformer.”
«Liu Bolin was born in the province of Shangdong in 1973 and has been living since 1999 in Beijing, where he graduated with a degree in sculpture from the Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA) in 2001. His proposal comes from the process of change and liberalization that contemporary Chinese society has been experiencing. It is a traumatic change that imposes a bipolar culture in which tradition and foreign influence, the old and the new, are in conflict with each other, seeking new horizons.
Trapped in the midst of this process, the individual appears disoriented, displaced, skeptical, and he develops the most subtle of survival mechanisms. The environment, far from being stable, is ever changing, creating a kind of chameleon-like individual always willing to adapt to new decor. In Bolin’s words: “Ideology was written, then erased and later rewritten and then erased once again …” (1)
Bolin’s work is centered on the individual, an anonymous individual, lacking in any personal attribute that might distinguish him. In that sense there is a certain level of empathy for the tradition of Socialist Realism, in which the individual joins the masses in order to become an anonymous hero. Nevertheless, in Bolin’s creation the individual does not integrate himself into any collective; he is not an active -much less so, enthusiastic- participant in any process. Rather, he is by himself -with eyes closed, confirming the idea of introspection-. More than presence, his figures have something of the absent or phantasmagorical: they are inexpressive and immovable. Individuality has been effectively diluted in the pursuit of nothing. The distrustful individual prefers to go unnoticed behind the scenes.
In his series “Urban Camouflage,” Bolin introduces us to individuals who blend into the cityscape. The urban landscape makes reference to communal places: bus stops, streets, destroyed buildings where the icon appears as a vestige. We witness the prominence of symbols, which survive at an urban level in collective ideology. Sometimes posters completely dominate the scene as in “Camouflage 36,” or “Camouflage 31.”
In both works, the individual, standing up, is able to go unnoticed by blending into the background, leaving behind a barely visible silhouette. A slogan carelessly passes over the subject leaving its mark, molding him at its whim. The idea of atomizing individuality, no longer merging it with the masses, but instead with political posters, adds new levels of interpretation.
In Bolin’s oeuvre the human being appears isolated. There are a few exceptions in which the group appears as the protagonist. Even then interpersonal relationships are absent, and individuals persist in their immovability, their eyes closed. In “Camouflage 46″ we witness a family portrait with the flag of the People’s Republic of China appearing as an imposing background, as well as in the forefront, because the family has been absorbed by and fused with the patriotic concept.
When individuals oddly appear to interact, we observe an interesting approach. In “Camouflage 16″ and “Camouflage 17″ two individuals interact; they touch each other. In contrast to the rest of Bolin’s pieces in which the backgrounds are the real protagonists, here the background is restricted to the fundamental simplicity of the plane and the horizon, simply providing spatial placement for the figures. One of the individuals has an active, controlling attitude. Dressed in uniform, the law enforcement representative controls, compels, and decides for the second individual; depriving him of fundamental rights, such as, liberty of movement or visibility. In fact, only the police officer, impeccable and implacable -with eyes wide open- is total master of his identity, while the other anonymous individual is nothing more than a highly-transparent, flimsy silhouette that we can barely make out. In these pieces, Bolin has disturbed the traditional notion of entity-individual representation by giving shape to an abstract force (the police officer) and withdrawing the other person, almost making him disappear. In both cases the works are monochromes.
The series “Urban Camouflage” compels us to linger over its process of creation, bringing new levels of interpretation to the resulting work. The final product is the photograph that Bolin offers as a limited series. This idea, of creating a series and losing the original, acts as a supplement to the idea of the atomization of the individual, so dear to the work of this artist. The series itself never bears specific titles, just an interminable succession of numbers which organizes the works, one behind the other, in an endless sequence.
The other vital element from a technical standpoint is the range of appropriations the creative act implies for Liu Bolin, who participates in sculpture, performance, body-painting, and photography at the same time. The immobile individual himself becomes sculpture, a kind of mannequin that will become the central element of the performatic act, which involves the correct placement of the subject -at times, the artist himself- in the composition and subsequent camouflage process. Body-painting then makes its appearance. The figure begins integrating itself into the background until it disappears. As a last resort, the photograph appears, also acting as a simulation. In some instances, Bolin retakes the photo, transferring it to the canvas, thereby adding another degree of deterioration.
When we first approach “Urban Camouflage,” we have the impression that the optical illusion we perceive is the result of photographic manipulation. It is only afterwards, when we delve into the artist’s production and intention, that we discover the simulation. The work is not the result of digital manipulation; rather, it is the result of a meticulous and elaborate manual process that ties Bolin to the ancient tradition of the artisan, once again revealing significant antipodes, such as, tradition-modernity, east-west, the old and the new.
Bolin is a master of sculpture. Here, the idea of multiples is also fundamental. His series, “Red hand,” expresses this. Svelte, monochromatic figures -white or red- share a common space. There remains a lot of the infant in these figures, which already hint at puberty. Nude, deprived of all atavisms -at least at first glance- they would appear to be happy. Nevertheless, these creatures appear to have suffered some kind of mutation. There is no trace of eyes in their faces and the overprotective, all-powerful red hand is ever present. The series establishes itself as indispensable questioning for new generations emerging in the midst of a crisis of pretexts and a redefining of the past. The series is at the very least, disquieting.
With his series, “Olympic Warrior,” Bolin presents us with a special homage to the Beijing Olympics. The warriors are replicas of soldiers in the first Chinese emperor’s terracotta army. The sculpture appears to be positioned at the starting blocks of a race. The pieces, created in bronze, are identical to each other; they only differ in color: the five colors symbolizing the Olympic Games. (…)
Notes:
(1) Words of the artist in the catalogue, Liu Bolin. Galerie Adler. Paris, 2008».
«THE CURRENT OF THE RIVER OF LIFE MOVES US ON (excerpt)
By the use of the intellect we have created a world of ideas that does not actually exist.
The political world is a structure conceived and agreed to us by us but it is not a reality.
You have been conditioned to believe that this political world is in fact real.
With… this conception it is believed that we have come into ownership of the world
And that we are responsible for creating it. And with this concept
We have placed ourselves in a condition of perpetual responsibility and reform.
But since we are not creating the world, since it was created before us and we are
Merely in it, and since we do not own it, our whole political concept is false.
It is untrue. It is not based on reality or true life.
An artist must see this and give up all reform and political considerations.
The world evolves due to changes that take place in individuals.
By individuals I mean all living things.
The world evolves due to a growing awareness in the lives of all things
and expressed in their actions.
The actions of all things are guided by a growing awareness of life.
We call it inspiration.
Living by inspiration is living. Living by intellect – by comparisons,
Calculations, schemes, concepts, ideas – is all a structure of pride
In which there is not beauty or happiness – no life.
The intellectual is in fact death».
蛸と海女, “Tako to ama”, pescadora de pérolas assediada por dois polvos, por Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849), do seu álbum em 3 volumes “Kinoe no Komatsu”, publicado anonimamente em 1814. Hokusai foi um dos grandes desenhadores de Ukiyo-e (à letra, “gravuras do mundo flutuante”) e da arte erótica japonesa, conhecida pelo nome de “shunga“.
.
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萬福和合神』, “Manpuku Wagojin” (The Gods of Intercourse) por Katsushika Hokusai, c. 1821
Acredito cada vez mais que a mudez consiste numa certa forma indescritível de poder. Aspiro a tornar-me um daqueles artistas-mimos ou homens-estátua que povoam as grandes capitais.
António Gomes Santos, hãToino de Lírio, “Static Man“, recordista mundial do Guinness Book: «Quando os lábios estão imóveis, as palavras estão em ordem».
«The TurnOn Multi-function Spinning Wall makes you walk like a rodent to rotate it into a different room of your house. For example, you can cook yourself a nice meal, then run like a hamster to change the TurnOn to a dining table. And once you’ve eaten, you can run off the fat by rotating it to your loungeroom. There’s also a Wet Cell option, that houses the toilet, shower and bathroom sink – I don’t want to know what function you’d be using when the toilet is on the ceiling… no matter what it is it isn’t going to be pretty».
Este é um objecto de design cujo mérito será menos a utilidade – pelo que tem encontrado votos negativos junto da opinião jornalística – do que a crítica em relação ao círculo vicioso das rotinas.
Há dias em que somos muito menos humanos do que hamsters rodando no sistema fechado entre comer (mesa), cagar (sanita) e dormir/foder (cama).
Certa vez, um amigo disse-me: «As três melhores coisas da vida: comer, cagar e foder». Virei o rosto para esconder o meu ar de enfado. Se me disserem que ”sou uma triste”, eu respondo: “é a opinião de um hamster”.
«Our official theories about reality–quantum physics, etc.–proved that the taste of our life is the taste of a simulation. Machines help us feel comfortable with this condition: they simulate the simulation we call Nature. Opening the door of your room or clicking on a folder on your computer’s desktop will send you to similar destinations–two versions of reality that are seemingly perfect and dense, but they will start dissolving after you analyze them. (…)
Neenstars buy the newest products and they study how to create momentum. They glorify machines, but they get easily bored with them. Sometimes they prefer just watching others operating them. Neenstars find their pleasure in the in-between actions. Neen is about losing time on different operating systems.
Neenstars love copying in the same way that the city of Hong Kong multiplies its most successful buildings. (…)
Because the identity of a Neenstar is his state of mind, he is free to use the identity of another Neenstar if he needs to do so. But this works also on reverse: a Neenstar can create artwork for another Neenstar and that is the major difference between Neen and contemporary art. (…)
While in contemporary art you need to be yourself all the time, a certain type of “hero” who is polishing always his image until he becomes a mirror of his lifetime, in Neen, you are a kind of “screen.” (…)».
Esculturas cinéticas de metal flexível, incluindo: «Portal do templo», «Serpentes marinhas» (Deus do Mar), «Deusa da caverna», «Bola solar», «Lâmina» (1976):
“Le Viol” (1934), Magritte. Ver também “Venus and René” (2007), 
