Landart and (Ritual) Intervention in Nature

The very old spruces in an Austrian National Park, a primeval forest without human intervention, need almost the same time for rotting as for growing. Like a flame the rest of the trunk stands in front of the Alpine pastures. Transformation, rotting and putrefying in nature are accomplished by the elemental beings of fire. I mark the circle of their activity by pieces of wood fallen off the rotting tree.
 

The work “Altar“ war realized in connection with the dance-production „beyond the broken hoop“ in a little lake high in the mountains of the Austrian Alps. A simple white ribbon of cotton marks the cubic stone in the middle of the lake and its surroundings as „Omphalos“ (navel) of this landscape-temple. I recognize it as a place of birth and breed of the elemental world and its beings. On a formal level the ribbon i inspired by the stratum of the rocks around the lake, broken from the mountains above.
Remaining in the absolute stillness of the place I enter in a trance-like state and my eyes are caught by stones which are shaped like hearts. With a natural pigment and the water of the lake i paint them red and offer them on the stone as gifts for a new encounter between the human and the elemental world. Later, when i take off the ribbon, i distribute those stones in cavities between the rocks of the small island – as infective focus of a new consciousness.