"A Crushed Memory Time & Space" Letter in Dec 2024_07

 

 

 

11/27/2024

Dear, Rob

 

How was your trip?

In the US, it is Thanksgiving, and we are eating a lot. 

 

I drew an image of the rough plan of our project. The opinions you and I share now are all rough ideas. You can throw anything you want if you have any opinions. Of course, it will be revised until the exhibition, but the plan will be released around February next year after collecting and organizing all of them. When the exhibition plan comes out, the big frame will be organized, and we will share the parts we need to do. 

 

I created an image of you and me on a large map of the Eurasian continent as we traversed the space and time of civilization until now, circled like a space of Möbius. The point where we meet in the middle is the Pamir Plateau, where civilization began and spread here and there around what is now Central Asia. 

 

The critical point of this project is to tell the story of an individual's history and the history of civilization overlapping, the lives of one individual and another, and that the points of time and space are segmented rather than progressive. In this, we will tell the stories of our ancestors in our way, based on our experiences, cultures, and our own eyes. For example, racism or women's discrimination could have been used as a means of maintaining a system or maintaining a rank according to the needs of the ruling class, which is a universal idea that anyone can think of. But in my case, I think it's a struggle to win the instinct of a human or animal, which is the desire for survival. To take an example of an individual's life, there is a view that the instinctive human being, who constantly craves love and recognition because they do not receive emotional sympathy in their relationship with their parents for the first time in their lives, resembles a society that seeks to maintain a hierarchical system. So, I think we can find many things in common in the lives of individuals from birth to death, in society, and history. 

 

It still feels too complicated and hasn't been organized, but the more ideas you have, the denser the projects can come out, so I welcome any related ideas. It will all be organized neatly in the end!! Then, let me know your thoughts and take care.

 

Song E

 

12/7/2024

Dear Song,

I hope you are well.

 

I read (and saw) with pleasure the project map and the initial draft that you shared with me. It is an abstract and very ambitious work.

I like the dimension of storytelling within the journey: the possibility of telling, in a personal, emotional, and free way, the stories of people and situations that intersect in our path of growth and research, superimposing the diary dimension (our reading of reality) on the geographical one (the physical reality that intersects along our journey).

If our project is, therefore, a work in progress, a fabric of suggestions, notes, aspirations, and perspectives, then I would avoid touching on issues such as racism, gender, reproduction of the system of power, etc. They are concrete themes, not abstract ones. And they are very delicate; I'd instead not include them in a framework with an interpretative and subjective imprint. At least I wouldn't do it: I work on these issues daily and treat them with extreme care and attention, giving them the right space and context. I feel the ethical imperative to present an idea only when I have thoroughly researched it precisely because part of my job is to deconstruct stereotypes that form from shared opinions.

 

I recently visited London to see a Hew Locke exhibition, “What have we here?”. This exhibition is a good example of how to "artistically" deal with the tremendous contemporary themes.

The exhibition is based on long, meticulous, and profound historical research. The artist questions and challenges narratives of British imperialism through objects from the British Museum collection, choosing to courageously take a stand on many historical events and figures, often untouchable. Try looking; I'll leave you the link here: https://www.britishmuseum.org/exhibitions/hew-locke-what-have-we-here. 

 

 

We can collect our glances and compare them. Since we come from diametrically opposed cultures, I think some interesting material could emerge.

 I found interesting reflections on this subject in some notes by Pavel Florensky. He talks about Western and Eastern cultures and how the perspectives are "reversed" because some of the key principles of both are opposite. For example, he brings up the concept of emptiness: for many Eastern cultures, emptiness is the fifth element, indispensable for establishing fullness. Instead, for Western culture, which is the daughter of Greek Parmenidean philosophy,  the void is not considered because it simply does not exist. Another example is divinity: for Christianity, God becomes man; for Buddhism, man becomes God. Etc. They are interesting oppositions. They are observations collected on a subjective basis because Florensky was a theologian and wrote them within a reflection on Russian icons.

 

Let me know what you think about it...

 

a big hug,

 

Rob

 

 

  

12/5/2024

Dear, Rob

Rob 

 

 

Etruria

Cervereri/ tarquinia_national Museum/ san gimignano/ antica macelleria cecchini(chanti) reservation 

D.H. Lawrence Sketches of Etruscan place

https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.151378/page/n19/mode/2up 

12/16/2024

 

Dear, Rob

 

I read the details of your last email about your idea.

I visited the museum exhibition link you sent and got to know Pavel Florensky. I will order his books.

 

Ultimately, I think that cultures and religions in the East and the West have similar contexts. In particular, characters and symbols in myths and religious history have almost the same characteristics. Most of the stories in traditional fairy tales I heard and read when I was young are the same. The reason is that humans began to scatter on the Pamir Plateau, as seen on the Möbius map I interpreted. Therefore, ancient shamanism, now considered superstition, can be critical in this work. Like Pavel Florensky's point of view, geopolitical positions have changed countless times, leading to opposing perspectives. The Cheonson Adventism (Heavenly Son)is a core idea that is the basis of this. The conversations and viewpoints we have now are universally conceivable for anyone. Still, I am confident that we can become our creations if we add verifications to our individual histories, emotions, and historical facts that historians have not yet recognized.

 

Talking to you like this, I'm learning new facts and getting upgraded. It's fun to empathize with each other and create details. There's a book I mentioned last time, but none have English translations, so I will translate the essential parts a little, mark it, and give it to you. I was wondering if it would be a little helpful for you. To say that it's an essential book with no translation version means that it's not a common idea yet, and maybe it's an excellent material for us. I will make this and deliver it to you when I start working on residency in February.

 

Big hug

 

Song E

 

 

12/29/2024