Marina Razheva, 2001
Text-based action / instruction
Preface 1
If we speak of creativity as an addition to reality, there are many ways to read it. One can add an object to a room, open the cupboard doors, or rearrange them (not yet creativity, rather combinatorics). One can throw open a window, remove a wall, or build on another room (this is closer).
Different levels, one aim.
Preface 2
When a small window is opened in a closed space, at first the fresh air breaking into the familiar atmosphere seems sacrilegious and destructive. Then it seems ordinary and necessary. Later, unnoticeable.
And at that moment, perhaps, it is time to open a window.
Aesthetics is like air: at first it excites, then it seems habitual, necessary, natural, until the next change.
The creative act is the opening of the small window.
Whether this action is ethical depends on the situation.
It is, of course, a metaphor, but to make it real one can carry out the ACTION On Ethics, Aesthetics and Breathing:
Breathe in a closed room until the air is used up, then open the small window.
Notes
- The reaction will depend on the composition, mood, preparedness and other states of the people breathing.
- When the window is opened, fresh air comes in, and information leaves: the changed composition of the air, produced by the presence of the people in the room, goes out.
- The experiment can be varied by using holotropic breathing instead of ordinary breathing.
- If desired, it can be continued with other actions: open a window, or go outside (not necessarily through the window).
Publication
The text was published as written instructions in Sputnik. Technology of Active Reflection, a co-operative book of poetry, vol. 2. Kemerovo: S.N.K., 2001, pp. 37–38.
The artist did not attend the symposium. She believes that participants may have carried out the action during the event, but no documentation of this is known.
Related Work
Project Dossier