Il Progetto
L'Arte ha il potere di ristabilire uno stato di Unità tra colui che osserva e la realtà, facendo dissolvere la percezione dualistica del soggetto/oggetto, proprio come accade nelle pratiche spirituali. L'Arte comunica attraverso la vibrazione. In tutte le manifestazioni artistiche il linguaggio comune infatti è la vibrazione, la sostanza stessa dell'esistenza. L'esperienza artistica è uno spontaneo riconoscimento dell'Unità o, come afferma Abhinavagupta, un assaggio della nostra stessa coscienza.
Guadalupe GarcÍa
* Chauhan, Kavita, Dr., Cognition of Art: In Abhinavagupta's Abhinavanbharti, YouTube, 16 febbraio 2016, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fyQ1rYY13Vw
The project
Art has the potential to restore the state of union of the experiencer with reality, dissolving the dual perception of the self and the other. This same process is exactly what happens with spiritual practices. Art communicates with vibration. In all artistic manifestations the common language is vibration, the inherent form of the existence of all. The artistic experience is a spontaneous recognition of oneness, or, as Abhinavagupta stated, a tasting of our own consciousness.
The process of creation and the moment of contemplation have in common the potential to dismantle the dual perception of subject-object relations, and to lead one to experience unity with the work of art and with the wider universe it portrays. Art has the extraordinary quality to depict the ordinary in a universal form, connecting the specificity of a particular subject with the intimate universe of the experiencer in a direct experience of joy. The aesthetic experience was extensively commented upon by Abhinavagupta, an extraordinary Kashmiri master from the tenth century. He set the groundwork for understanding what is called Rasa or the experience of art. It happens when the mind is totally absorbed into the object of art, in a continuous process that can only take place in the present moment and with the exclusion of everything else, making the experience highly concentrated and intense. It is a state of tasting one's own consciousness, and it is endowed with supernatural bliss. Abhinavagupta clearly differentiated the experience of art from the ordinary cognition of the senses.*
This intrinsic quality of art has been overlooked in the contemporary over-intellectualized art scene. It seems like the possibility of art as a vehicle of joy has become less valuable than its potential to become a financial asset. By showing the works of practitioners in the tradition of Kashmir Shaivism, the creation of this exhibition is the first step towards opening spaces for art which arouses from the practice and is imbued with the intimate experience of joy. It is also a space to honor our spiritual master, Daniel Odier, who has been the cause for all of us to vibrate in the joy of his infinite heart.
Guadalupe GarcÍa
* Chauhan, Kavita, Dr., Cognition of Art: In Abhinavagupta's Abhinavanbharti, YouTube, 16 February, 2016, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fyQ1rYY13Vw