The Power of the Words

During the performance „The Power of the Magic” I look back to my childhood, where I endlessly finger painted pictures in the sand, creating a complete cosmos for myself alone. Nowadays this seems to me to have been a kind of meditation, and my dedication a forgetting of time and space.

Later I encountered the traditional rituals of the Navajo Indians, who draw mountains, lightning, holy plants and holy natures into the sand. In one ritual the Navajos, accompanied by singing and prayers, created a sand picture of an ailing patient seated on the ground. Before sunset the sand picture was destroyed with a holy feather that was wielded exclusively by the medicine man, and the patient was healed. A similar ritual can be found with Tibetian monks, and here, too, it is linked with deep religious belief. Here also one must learn that the work of many days is not intended for eternity and that the destruction after the creation is closely linked with Tibetian Buddhism. In this performance I will draw with my fingers-brush words in the sand which are spread out on the floor in squares. At the end of the performance every word will have its own space in my pattern on the floor.

Superbi, perpetrator, moral, avaritia, luxuria, ira, gula, acedia, hate, willingness, foolishness, vanity, narcissism, vanitas are the negative expressions, the positive ones are temperance, prudence, courage, justice etc.

I am not a medicine woman, I just want to focus the past as an artist and make it useful it for the future.

For me it is a personal question as well as a request to the audience, if these traditional Christian statements and values are still important to them in their lives. And if so, what does that mean for them in everyday life. On the other hand I intend to bring the archaic religious belief of Buddhism and nature more visible and tactile towards the audience and myself.